Mary Lou Retton Quotes

All sportsmen have superstitions, or at least they have routines. You look at Rafa Nadal and the way he organises his water bottles. Me, I always put my left pad and left shoe on first.

I think we all have had better days in competition.

I've been on such a losing streak that if I had been around I would have taken General Custer and given points.

The more matches I play, the more confident I get.

I was so horrifically bad at tennis.

I used to have this lucky rock and I used to always have to rub it three times before I competed.

In gymnastics, everything is a competition. You want to have your hair look the best and your makeup look the best. You want to be the best, and you want to have the prettiest leotard.

I have pride, and my pride won't allow me to accept losing by 30 points four games in a row.

Losing has to be awful. You can never get used to losing. That's one of the biggest downfalls to a lot of teams.

When I lose a big game, I am angry and always in a bad mood, and I will talk about other stuff to bring attention away from my team also.

I was a little nervous at my first match, but I think I did OK. I went home after the match and watched the tape of it over and over. I wanted to do it again.

It's amazing, as a player and as a coach, how you always remember the tough losses better than the victories. They're just way more vivid.

After a big defeat, any player feels affected - it is about how long he needs to recover.

I find it very difficult when, due to a lack of confidence, I don't produce and lose matches I could have won.

I played semi-professionally for a season, and there's an element of performance to being a footballer, stepping onto the pitch: you feel like a gladiator walking into a colosseum.

I don't think I've ever not gotten nervous. When you work so hard for one special day or routine, you want to perform it better than you ever have. We always say at our gym, If you lose the nerves, you lose the sport.

I knew we were in for a long season when we lined up for the national anthem on opening day and one of my players said, 'Every time I hear that song I have a bad game.'

I think finals are there to be won, you know the feeling of losing a final is really bad. I prefer to lose a semi-final, quarter-final because I know I will forget... But the feeling of losing a final stays here forever. Even if you win two, three, four, five it stays. You know, I’m too scared to lose, so I give everything to win.

On a matchday, I like tie-up my right boot on the pitch before kick-off. I ll tie my laces in the changing room, walk out and then untie my right boot and tie it up again. It s one of those things - I ve always done it! I do it before every match.

If you can't beat me, you need to get some new coaches or something.

There's no more bad feeling than when you get a defeat.

You never want to lose but it happens in the NFL.

Horseshoes are lucky. Horses have four bits of lucky nailed to their feet. They should be the luckiest animals in the world. They should rule the country. They should win all their horse races, at least. 'In the fifth race today, every single horse was first equal...one horse threw a shoe came in third...the duck was ninth...and five ran.'

I painted my toenails before Dennis Rodman. One time at training camp, I stubbed my toe and the nail came loose. My mom gave me some toenail hardener, and I painted over it. I scored 40-something points that night, so it became a ritual. Paint my toenails, score 40 points.

I am afraid of a lot of things. A dog. I could be afraid of a dog that's upset, for example. And on the tennis courts, maybe on the outside I look fearless, but on the inside, I'm scared. There's not one player in the world who isn't nervous before matches. Especially important matches.