Oxana Chusovitina Quotes

I would love to be a professional athlete. When I was living in Mexico as a teenager, I did seven years of gymnastics and went to the Junior Olympics. I was getting to the level of going to the international competitions, but I was only 14, and my parents were really worried because they did not want that to be my life.

I've been fortunate enough to play at all the age groups but I'm not eligible for them anymore.

If you play well at club level, then, you deserve an invitation for the national team. That's the way it goes.

I perhaps could have been somewhat better. One of the interesting things about playing competitive sports as a child is that you confront your own limitations rather starkly at a certain point.

To me, when you got a 20-year-old running back or 21-year-old receiver that's just coming out of college and you're out working these guys, age really don't matter. So it's easy for me to see what it is. People say it's all about age, but to me, it's mind over matter.

I played all kinds of sports when I was young: tennis, handball, basketball, some soccer. I focused on basketball when I was 16 or 17 and then came to the U.S. when I was 20.

Sport doesn't know barriers, really. You are judged on your performance... how far you can jump, how fast you can run, how well you can hit a tennis ball.

I began dancing when I was 7 years old. I was told that I had the perfect ballet dancer's body and had these crazy high arches in my feet that resulted in an amazing point. Ballet was very disciplined and, frankly, a little boring, so I eventually transitioned to gymnastics. I loved that, although I never reached a competitive level.

I played a ton of team sports growing up, and team wins are just incredibly gratifying.

When I was in high school I was a super serious athlete. I wasn't fun at all.

A lot of coaches have come up to me and liked the way I played.

I am happy to have played a match and break the rhythm of daily training.

You see somebody on a football field make a great, athletic 70-yard run, but the athleticism is immeasurable. It's undoubtedly athletic, but compared to somebody else who did something else, how do you compare it? That's the great part of track and field. It's a test, but with results that you can compare to others.

People assume a lot of things about gymnasts - that the girls work too hard, it's way too much for them, they are too young to work so hard.

What does it prove, running in the AAU meet?

The prostheses do not run the race on their own: there is an athlete who does the work, and the prosthetics do not make a significant difference to the time.

What one does in one's club is what determines whether one gets called up for the national team.

I like to see my name in the box score.

I could have never been a high diver or a gymnast because I don't like subjectivity. I love where I'm faster than you,, or I can jump higher or swim faster. I don't want you holding a card before I figure out whether I won or lost.

I actually was a competitive gymnast for the first part of my life. From age 6 to 12, I dedicated pretty much everything to that, until I got injured really badly.

The NBA is 95% mental and 5% physical, so it's more in my favor now with me being older.

I prefer to be favourites on the pitch; not with words.

I would put LeBron on a track.

I believe I did well in the under-21s, did everything that was asked of me.

I started doing well at Villa when I was six or seven.