Mirai Nagasu Quotes

During the off-season when you see other people playing in the Super Bowl, you wonder, and you say to yourself, 'Are you ever gonna get there and see what it feels like?' And it pushes you a little bit harder during that off-season to work to try to get there the following year.

I know what it takes to get to the top.

There was a time in my life I wanted that Olympic medal, and all I did was train, train, train and work harder than ever.

It wasn't an easy journey to participating in the Olympics. It has taken me 14 years of training and hard work.

You have to be ready to compete. Because lots of people dream that dream, to be the best at something. But are you ready to commit to the hard work that it takes to get there? For me, it just became a part of my life, and it was what it was. Another day, another basketball practice or another game.

And my dad drilled it in my head, you know, 'If you want it bad enough, and you're willing to make the sacrifices, you can do it. But first you have to believe in yourself.

Success for an athlete follows many years of hard work and dedication.

Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.

Competing in sports has taught me that if I'm not willing to give 120 percent, somebody else will.

You can have anything in this world you want, if you want it badly enough and you're willing to pay the price.

You aren't going to find anybody that's going to be successful without making a sacrifice and without perseverance.

I always think it's because of you know hard work, hard training. And if Susie's training hard, you know, why can't I train hard to get a world record. I'm doing the same thing.

When you have a dream that you can't let go of, trust your instincts and pursue it. But remember: Real dreams take work, They take patience, and sometimes they require you to dig down very deep. Be sure you're willing to do that.

I don't know if I practiced more than anybody, but I sure practiced enough. I still wonder if somebody - somewhere - was practicing more than me.

It takes tremendous will to compete in any athletic endeavor, so it meant going to bed early and getting my homework done in advance. I had to sacrifice things, like a social life, to be a skater at 15. But I loved skating so much that it was worth everything to me.

What I can tell them is the way you become an Olympic champion is to start working now. I tell them why it's always worth it to put the time and effort into something you want to be good at.

It took putting one foot in front of the other every single day to get through it to the point where I made it back on the team and won a gold medal in 2008.

To be number one, you must train like you are number two.

I started skating because I loved it. I started when I was three and I didn't know all the sacrifices and all the hardships and how difficult day-in and day-out it would be.

You must find something that you deeply love and are passionate about and are willing to sacrifice a lot to achieve.

My father really told me, seriously, if you want something, you can have it, but you may have to work harder than anyone else around you.

I just figured out that if I gave my all into this game - if I put everything into the fight business - then I would eventually run the fight business.

Don't cut corners or compromise to achieve your dreams.

Coming out of Juilliard, I honestly was expecting and willing to be breaking my neck, hustling, and being unemployed for a decade, two decades. I was gritting my teeth, but I was so down to do that.

I was lucky to get good coaches and infrastructure that I needed. To become a champion, it is not just a few months' practice: it takes years to make a champion.