Clara Hughes Quotes

Many athletes are seeking new and novel ways of pushing their limits, and the challenge of running back-to-back races is certainly one way to test the boundaries.

I want to know about what makes an athlete tick.

No one will ever win a 5,000-meter by running an easy two miles. Not against me.

I don't just want to be that guy who throws hard.

Fear is there. Anything can happen at an Olympics. I want to use the experience I gained from Athens and Beijing - the fear, too - and build a me that can't lose. I will do everything to make sure I win a third gold medal in London. That target drives me. I'm bulking up and have more power now. I'll be fighting fit to take the gold back home.

As long as I have that support from my team, and I have that confidence in myself that I train really hard, I think there's no one out there who can defeat me in my weight class.

I'd rather be able to play great tennis at a slam than make eight finals of little tournaments and then lose first round of a slam. That doesn't sound too good.

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.

International sport is a lonely journey. You compete with one's self and try to grow as a cricketer.

I am still pushing the edge of what my body can do.

For me it's a simple sport and a simple way to live these seven or eight years of maximum sport.

I like to think I'm pretty smart with what I was able to do academically, but whenever I get on the field I turn into the Incredible Hulk and I am unstoppable.

I'm slightly influenced by sport in that I like the idea of trying, like an athlete, to keep absolutely ready. That's an emotional thing, almost. I don't mean physically, although I play tennis. But you try to keep yourself ready.

Durability is part of what makes a great athlete.

When I started running, the pain barrier was very familiar to me, and I had no problem pushing beyond the pain. When for your whole life, every single workout, you are programmed to push beyond belief, it's really hard to just turn that off and kind of just be a social competitor.

There are days when I go out on the court and I feel like I can't miss a ball.

I'm a sports junkie, and I am interested in athletic will - how you exceed the expectations of your own performance when it counts to deliver something beyond yourself so that you can win.

My good health, coupled with joy of tobogganing and my desire to be the best, has helped me stay in professional sport for so long.

Being an athlete, you know how to train and prepare your body for a performance and you're able to do it under pressure.

I started wrestling at ten. I played a lot of other sports: soccer, football. I really enjoyed skiing. But wrestling just took off for me. It seemed to be the sport I had an affinity for; I liked the individual, combative nature. There's something special about that. It took me all the places I wanted to go.

I have always maintained that in basketball the importance of the mental to the physical is about four to one.

I don't feel like my speed or my power or my desire to play this game has diminished at all.

Ask me what makes a champion runner, and I will tell you it helps to have the great good sense to choose your parents carefully.

When I raced, I had great parents, even a greater coach and a nutritionist. I was never insecure.

It's a very competitive thing, pro sports. The hardest thing in pro sports is staying up there.