Cathy Freeman Quotes

If you talk about natural ability, I think Apollo's probably the most naturally gifted athlete of the new era.

Let's just say the genes were there for me to excel athletically.

My chief gifts are - naturally good at all sports with a raw talent for pretty much everything, which if nurtured could develop into improper talent.

I started playing basketball when I was about three years old. After that, everything else just came naturally. I had older cousins that used to let me hang with them, so I got my toughness from them.

Sometimes I think if I had the same body and the same natural ability and someone else's brain, who knows how good a player I might have been.

I had jumped about 6.40 metres with no training, no run-up, and certainly no skill, when this big, good-looking guy came up to me and told me I could be great.

I started off singing when I was little. My parents have said I was singing at 3 years old. So I think it was just something I probably came into this world wanting to do and knowing I was going to do.

I think there are some players born to play ball.

It's not the norm, I guess, to see someone as aggressive as me being more or less very athletic. You see me running, having a big, violent hit, it's going to look bad, but that's the natural ability I've been given. Why would I let it run to the wayside and not use it?

The great thing with Usain Bolt is he fell into great coaching, so his talent was exceptional from Day 1. You can coach technique and structure, but not talent.

I think I have just as much talent as anybody when it comes to the 100 or 200.

I was born a footballer. Before I could walk, I was chasing balls.

Sports is just something I have a knack to figure out how to play.

My mum says that, when I was a couple of months old and couldn't even stand up yet, I'd try and kick a ball. She knew I'd be into football. Maybe I was just destined to do this.

I began playing at the age of six, but at that point, I had little idea of cricket; forget the talent part. It's around the age of 10-11, when more people around me began talking of my skills, that I felt maybe I could go on to do something.

Fencing and shooting kind of came naturally. From the start, I knew that I had it in me.

I started to play at four years old. I went to Corinthians at nine years old. Then, it started to become more serious.

Actually, I wanted to play baseball. Honestly, I just think with a kid developing, playing a lot of sports, it's just kind of whatever you're good at.

I started playing ball when I was 4 years old.

I got to play first-team men's football from a young age.

Growing up, I played about every sport imaginable except soccer and hockey. I've always had a passion for basketball. I remember actually playing basketball when I was two or three years old. The time I knew that I could really take my game to the next level.

Football is my true love. I played with boys until I was 11 and then for a girls' club in Middlesbrough until I was 16.

I was a million miles from being a Premier League player. You see some people, at 18 they are ready. At 21, I wasn't. Physically nowhere near.

I first realised I was good at football when I started getting scouted by United, Liverpool, Everton; clubs like that had a lot of interest at an early age, and you kind of know then you're on the right path. I was about six years old and had to sign a contract at nine.

I like my kind of innate and natural ability in the pocket, and ability of anticipation, and all that stuff that's important when it comes to playing quarterback.