Toni Duggan Quotes

There's an adage that a lot of coaches have, that I completely disagree with, is if you make the Olympic team too early you become complacent.

The Olympics must be my curse or something.

There's no day when I don't think it would be great to be 25 years old and have the Olympics coming in less than 300 days - and be the best in the world. I can't think of anything so motivating.

I look back, in an endearing way, on that time of my life when I was competing at the Olympics.

I want to be European, world and Olympic gold medallist.

There will be mental worries with the long jump before Rio, but I know I can get through it. It's just getting my confidence back. I know I have a big jump in me.

I've been to three Olympics. I gave it my all.

My favourite event was the 200m, so as I won the 100m, I thought it was possible I'd win the 200m.

The strategy of my coach and me was that we looked at pictures of all the best pole vaulters from around the world, and we took the best parts from them, and we created a person that had never existed. We then started to work toward being such a person.

My concentration level blocks out everything. Concentration is why some athletes are better than others. You develop that concentration in training and concentrate in a meet.

As a scientist, I play in the top league - the Olympics, the World Championships - and I want to be in the lead. As a runner, I set personal goals, and I want to push beyond my own personal limits. I was very happy when I practiced for several months and then reached my goal to run a marathon in 2:50.

An Olympic pursuit really takes a full three to four years of Olympic preparation.

It's never easy at the Olympic level. Russia, Romania and China always are contenders.

I've probably given myself enough time to prepare for this meet and we're all different athletes so I can't take their results as what's going to be inevitable for me.

I don't think about the trials and the Olympics a lot. If I do, it's just going to stress me out and get me worried.

The pressure of the Olympic Games is real overwhelming.

The Olympics were the most pressure I've ever felt.

Rio in four years; I've got more inspiration in the last two, three weeks. I'm sure I'm going to get more in the Paralympics in the next coming weeks, so by the end of this season, I'm going to take a month off, and then the next four years is going to be good.

During my first Olympics in 1980, at the age of 23, I was physically in great condition but mentally too inexperienced to cope comfortably in the pressure cooker of an Olympic year.

Once, every four years, you get an opportunity to compete in the Olympics. You have these six dives that decide whether you're an Olympic medallist or not, which is quite intense.

Athletes peak for the Olympic Games and can take months to get back up to that level.

Most of my best games were when I felt crap - I could hardly move on the morning of the World Cup semi-final in 1990 - but there's a thing called adrenaline that gets you through.

Nike came to me and said, 'We're interested in the decathlon and interested in seeing if we can help you get as close to 10,000 points as we can.'

All I can focus on is playing as many games as I can at the highest level. If that leads me to the World Cup, then brilliant. It's certainly a target of mine.

When I set my eyes on the gold at the world championships, I was able to maintain that focus that whole day. That's what I aim to do in Rio - my focus is gold, so I can keep in that good state; I can't get too complacent. I can't relax; I can't be content. I need to be 100 per cent switched on.