Top 1200 Great Athlete Quotes & Sayings

I'd rather be an athlete than a fighter, an athlete is going to go there and figure out the ways to win, see the holes in the game.

I am an athlete in every sense of the word. Athlete, martial artist.

Wilt Chamberlain had a great deal to do with the success of the NBA. His dominance, power, demeanor and the rivalry with Bill Russell says it all. He will be sorely missed by myself and everyone in the basketball community. Wilt was a great performer and a great athlete.

I wouldn't say I'm a phenomenon, just a great athlete.

It's either join the workforce or become a professional athlete, and I'd rather be a pro athlete.

I consider myself an athlete. I train like an athlete, I eat like an athlete, I recover and get sore just like any other athlete.

The athlete makes himself, the coach doesn't make the athlete.

You're not going to tell me that you're going to find a person who's not a very good athlete and he or she is going to be a great player. But anyone can play the game. That's the nice thing about the game. You don't really have to be a world-class athlete to play the sport [golf] and have fun because of handicap systems.

If a person says they're an athlete but they don't compete in sports, then you wonder if they're really an athlete. It's the same with acting. There are lots of people who call themselves actors but never act.

Before even Court Grip, I just wanted to be a part of a brand that I felt that listened to the athlete and really catered to the athlete, and gave us what we were looking for.

I always had that desire to become a great athlete.

Great coaches are great humanitarians. They really care for the athlete as people first and athletes second. This is paramount in gaining respect.

There has never been a great athlete who died not knowing what pain is.

People assuming that because I'm a great athlete, I can dance. But no. My rhythm is off a little bit.

I'm not angry. As an athlete ... you should be open to criticism, and you're allowed to be criticized, because not everybody has the same opinion, not everybody likes the same players. The rankings are quite volatile: Today you're 'great,' tomorrow you're 'not,' but then you're 'great' again. It makes for great stories. Now, I always look at the long term and by doing that, obviously, I can stay calm through the storm.

I don't recommend steroids for everyone, and I don't recommend growth hormones for everyone, but for certain individuals, I truly believe, because I've experimented with it for so many years, that it can make an average athlete a super athlete. It can make a super athlete-incredible. Just legendary.

I'm a British citizen, and I'm incredibly proud to represent Great Britain. I've also represented Great Britain in the Olympics, so I'm definitely a British athlete.

To be a top-class athlete, you have to train hard, you have to eat right, you have to get enough rest. I feel the way golf is going nowadays, you have to treat yourself as an athlete.

Nike told me, 'We can't give you royalties because you're not a professional athlete.' I told them 'I'll go to the Garden and play one-on-no-one.' I'm a performance athlete!

I've seen myself do stuff on stage that was pretty amazing. I think that would be true for any athlete. Any top athlete will see something that they are very proud of. All my injuries will attest to the fact that besides being a musician, it comes down to being an athlete.

I feel if I'm playing an athlete, I know I have to prepare. I need to get that body language right, I need to walk like an athlete, look like an athlete. If I'm playing a musician, I need to know how to play an instrument.

But I like to think an athlete is an athlete.

I don't think there is a perfect athlete. But if I had to come close to picking someone who demonstrates all the traits that I feel an athlete should have, I would say the perfect athlete would be Tiger Woods. He has the ability, he's humble and he's very good at what he does.

I think any great performer or athlete has to have a little bit of a gut to be great.

My father's NFL dreams never really felt like motivation to me, but it was something to aspire to. He was such a great athlete, the least I could do is try and use my athletic talent to represent my country in a different way. He represented as a Marine. Maybe I could do something to represent as an athlete.

My father was an athlete, a great athlete, fought in the Marines in World War I. He was all sports and activity. My mother was all academics. I still have the complete works of Shakespeare that she had.

I think it's ironic that I fell in love with a man I thought I would never be interested in because he's an athlete. I was always, 'An athlete? Heck no.'

I hated motivators - never been a motivator. Motivation is like a warm bath, and you should take a bath probably, but you need more than that; you need strategy. I was a strategist, but nobody responded to that, so I was, like, "OK, what am I? I'm a coach. I'm not a guru." As an athlete, I had great coaches, and I was a better athlete than many of them, but they still were better than I was as a coach because they could see when I couldn't see. I thought, that's great, because I'm not better than anybody, but I do have the skills that I can help people.

I tell my kids all the time, 'I want you to be a great athlete, I want you to be great academically, I want you to achieve a lot of things, but mostly I want you to be a great person. If none of the other stuff happens and you're a great person, then I'm okay with anything else that happens in your life - that's the highest standard.'

An opera singer is like an athlete before a match. An athlete cannot overdo anything. In order to perform at the highest possible level, you need to refrain from activities so as to be able to express this power.

I don't recommend steroids for everyone, and I don't recommend growth hormones for everyone. But for certain individuals, I truly believe, because I've experimented with it for so many years, that it can make an average athlete a super athlete. It can make a super athlete - incredible. Just legendary.

I don't think forcing an athlete to stay in school does anything for the athlete.

We have a terrific economy, it's like a great athlete that's had a cardiac arrest.

I'm an actress, model and athlete, and I'd put athlete third on the list.

The athlete of today is not an athlete alone. He's the center of a team - doctors, scientists, coaches, agents and so on.

I guess from my perspective being a female athlete as well, there's probably not a huge amount of female athlete books out there.

The life of an athlete does have to be lonely and you have to be focused on your craft and what you do. Loneliness is just a sacrifice you make as an Olympic-level athlete.

I want to be remembered as a great athlete. As a boxing champion.

My brother David was a great athlete and I knew there was no way I could live up to that.

Miesha is a great athlete, really tough. I know that.

I'm not a great athlete that can play any sport. But one thing I could always do is... fight back.

I was a total athlete. I loved sports, but when I realized I wasn't going to be a professional athlete, I realized I wanted to be in movies.

An athlete must have a certain cockiness to succeed and win, but an athlete must also care about the game he or she plays.

When I found Jesus Christ, I learned to be a better athlete. I didn't have to go out there and knock them out in the first round. I've learned to be patient, skillful in the ring. At the same time, I wanted to prove to other boxers that you can take off this killer instinct stuff, you can be a great athlete, a great boxer, and love your brother.

You can no longer just be a good sailor. You have to be an incredible athlete as well. Having said that, you can be a great athlete, the strongest guy in the world, but if you can't anticipate and make decisions under stress and exhaustion and think ahead, then you won't be able to cut it, either.

All athletes, without fail, are potentially great and good. A great athlete is a little man tirelessly inspired.

Durability is part of what makes a great athlete.

I might not be a great athlete, but I think I'm a real good football player.

We have a lot of great lesbian role models in tennis. I mean, Martina Navratilova in her heyday was probably the greatest female athlete on the planet. Martina just kept breaking every rule. That's a great role model.

Georges St. Pierre has the best takedowns and dominant wrestling ability, and he's a great athlete, but he's shown he can be knocked out. I think B.J. Penn is the better fighter. He's the great martial artist.

People assume that because I'm a great athlete, I can dance. But no. My rhythm is off a little bit.

I work with a trainer called Ruben Tabares. He's a nutritionist, strength and conditioning coach, and an athlete. So I literally just train like an athlete.

I think a great athlete transcends eras.

It's just that right now the athlete's on the floor. But we - this is a super athlete.

You know Rockhold is a very good athlete and great fighter. He is a champion in Strikeforce, in UFC.

Behind every great athlete is a masterful coach that inspires the athlete to evolve into the strongest performer they can become.

I wasn't a great athlete.

I used to pray that God would make me a great athlete, and He never did.

If any athlete is doing well, then it's the responsibility of the government to support the athlete.

I do feel like since I am a third-generation wrestler, I do have to hold myself - and there are a lot of people that expect certain things out of me - I'm an athlete, and I'm a top athlete.