Athlete Burnout Quotes

That's the hard part about sport: as men we haven't started to be in our prime, but as athletes we are old people. I needed support. I lost trust and did stupid things.

I don't want to play anymore. I'm tired of football but also tired of people who work in football.

Obviously, I think this [162 games a year four times] caused my early retirement, but I couldn't do it any other way. Just for the record, I never asked for any of the days off in my career.

I don't want to play 10 years and then die of a heart attack when I'm 40.

The workload with Test cricket was too much as I want to extend my career for as long as I can.

If we carry on filling up the calendar, we keep on pushing the athlete, we shorten the athletes longevity. The risk is to shorten a career that could have lasted 10 years because the athlete is burnt out.

I was so tired of playing tennis, so tired of traveling, of hotels, everything related to this sport.

I think, at some point in my wrestling career, I took myself way too seriously, and I took the wrestling business way too seriously. It probably helped sour me on the whole process. It probably helped burn me out.

A lot of athletes want to have a break, but they don't do it.

Over the years of competing as an individual, I got a little bit burned out and tired of competing for myself.

Although it was a great accomplishment to win a gold medal, as soon as they put it on you, that's it; your career is over.

In my opinion we are at the limit now, and 17 races is really too much. With all the testing that we do now, it means we're always on the bike and it's quite difficult.

There's only one cure for what's wrong with all of us pitchers, and that's to take a year off. Then, after you've gone a year without throwing, quit altogether.

Winning the Olympics was an amazing feeling, but afterwards, it was a bit like, 'What do I do now?' So I lost a bit of motivation going back into training and competitions; I had so much pressure on me. I kept thinking, 'I'm the Olympic champion. I can't lose' - being only 19 and having to deal with all that pressure.

I think four Olympics is probably enough. Five Olympics is a long time, but there's nothing wrong with that if I'm into it and I'm healthy and my priorities can fit around that.

I think with Lesnar, it's always going to be him coming in every few months as a monster who destroys guys who work 200 days a year... There is a tendency for that to get old.

Sports exact too harsh a toll on our beautiful women. Like engendered species, they should be protected, and instead, we exploit them and demand they fly too close to the sun for our amusement. We send them into the arena for an exhausting three-setter, an 18-hole playoff, a 200th lap. The burnout factor is insurmountable.

I can't keep playing 10-11 months a year and keep being sharp after 15 years of international cricket.

They should be required to be in less events; there should be less events for the women. It seems it takes an actual meltdown on the court or women quitting the game altogether before they realize there's a need to change the schedule.

The most I ever played was 12 or 13 tournaments. Now they're talking about almost 20, and it's all year round, playing through the summer as well.

A lot of rookies hit the wall after 50 or 60 games.

In Athens I was 17 and I didn't have any expectations. I was just swimming fast and racing everybody. I didn't have the joy after my races in 2007. I didn't want to go to Beijing. I had to for sponsors.

I like playing tennis. I've always enjoyed the process of being a tennis player; I'm just not sure that I enjoyed the travel at the end, and my body didn't recover from the day-to-day grind.