Ashton Eaton Quotes

The individual, by means of the discipline imposed on him by sport, not only plays and finds relaxation from the various compulsions to which he is subjected, but without knowing it trains himself for new compulsions. ... Training in sports makes of the individual an efficient piece of apparatus which is henceforth unacquainted with anything but the harsh joys of exploiting his body and winning.

This is what I wanted. They tell me that London is the best field in history. I wanted to be part of that. Because everyone will be there it will be a wonderful challenge for me. You can see the best runners, how they look, how they run. For me to beat the best is what counts.

I did get to go to the Olympic trials in '88 and '92. I was 7th and 11th, so I didn't place high enough to go to the games, but, still, it was a blast.

Looking back, I'm so proud to have gone to five Olympics - I believe only three other Americans have achieved that.

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.

The decathlon is exclusive company.

An athlete may run ten thousand miles in order to prepare for one hundred yards. Quantity gives experience.

The writer ... an athlete required to break the four-minute mile every morning.

Racing comes easily to me, especially the 100 metres. That is why, no matter how fast I run the run the 100 metres, the 200 will always mean more to me, because of the effort I've put in.

Few years ago I did 30m in 3.7 seconds. Whether that makes me quicker than [Usain] Bolt, I don't know! We all know Usain is the best.

I was unable to walk for a whole week after that, so much did the race take out of me. But it was the most pleasant exhaustion I have ever known.

That's the fastest time ever run - but it's not as fast as the world record

I wrestled and played football in high school and in my last year, I started as a wrestler and actually had a fairly good record. But I hated to lose. I always gave it everything I had which, unfortunately, was not as much as I'd hoped for. But keep in mind, I feel like I got the most out of my ability. One moment that was special above all the rest was winning my last bout at the Naval Academy to finish the entire summer undefeated. That was thrilling, but what's more, it helped me in prison because the first time I got knocked around by the Vietnamese, it did not come as a total shock.

You don't need cocaine! There's another way to get real high, and really mess your mind up, it's called marathon running!

Everyone wins the marathon. We all have the same feeling at the start-nervous, anxious, excited. It is a broader, richer, and even with twenty-seven thousand people-more intimate experience than I found when racing in track. New York is the marathon that all the biggest stars want to win, but has also been the stage for an array of human stories more vast than any other sporting event.

I jogged for three miles once. It was the worst three hours of my life.

Like an athlete, [dance] is an everyday job. You have to stay in shape - unless you just want to loaf through a couple of hoofing routines. But that just didn't satisfy me.

I mean, it's unheard of for somebody to hit 70 home runs, so I'm like in awe of myself right now.

My sophomore year I placed 2nd, and my junior and senior year - I got smart and piled up enough points between myself and second place where I didn't have to run the mile.

Even if Mays is given every conceivable break on every unknown - defense, base running, clutch hitting - his performance still would not match Mantle's.

So if the dance is five minutes long, make yourself run for perhaps eight minutes. That way, you over-train and the dance will seem easier.

As a ballplayer, I would be delighted to do it again. As an individual, I doubt if I could possibly go through it again.

If someone had said to me before I started doing this that a human being is capable of running 100 miles nonstop, I would have just said: 'No way. I mean, how?' If you just go out there and run 100 miles, it breaks down a lot of barriers in terms of self-imposed limitations.

Usain Bolt won the gold for the men's 100- and 200-meter dashes for the second Olympics in a row. You know, he has been running since he was in elementary school - kind of like Mitt Romney.

There was a race that I was running in Mexico City and I was the only high school athlete running against grown women. It was a professional race, but I ended up winning. That was kind of a turning point for me where I felt like, "Okay, I'm pretty good at this and there's a possibility for this to be a career for me." That was a defining moment for me.