Athletic Perseverance Quotes

It doesn't feel good in the NFL when you lose a football game until you get out there and win another one and another one.

After having polio, my right leg was weaker, so I wasn't great at football. But I swam lots and even did long-distance running.

All athletes need three things: commitment, discipline and hard work. Without that it's hard to keep running.

For the birth of one champion, there are many young boxers behind them who had setbacks. In terms of that, I think boxing is very dramatic.

I'm hesitant to compare myself to Roger Federer in any way, but he's improved while he's in his thirties. That makes you believe that even though you may have struggled for a few years, there's still hope.

You look at Ray Lewis, you look at Brett Favre. I know it's different positions, but you think about the mental mindset it takes to continue to grind and play at a high level. Those are the guys that I look at that motivate me.

This great game of football is about challenges every day.

To say I have played through four World Cups, two Lions tours, 91 international games and a ridiculous number of injuries and other setbacks gives me an incredibly special feeling of fulfilment. I know myself well enough to know that I will never truly be satisfied.

The man I marvel at is the one that's in there day after day, and night after night and still puts the figures on the board. I'm talking about Pete Rose, Stan Musial, the real stars. Believe me, especially the way we travel today, flying all night with a game the next night and then the next afternoon, if you can play one-hundred and sixty-two games, you're a man.

No one was more important to the game of baseball in the last half of the 20th century than Henry Aaron and no one writes about that supremely talented man, that tumultuous time and this treasure of a game better than Howard Bryant. Together, they are an extraordinary combination, and the book Bryant has written gets to the heart of the complicated and dignified, patient and consistent genuine hero that is Henry Aaron.

There is no doubt about how hard it is to stay on top in any sport, but to do it in an individual sport for the majority of your career, it is not easy.

When I first started wrestling I knew that I wanted to work as long and as hard as it took to be able to have a great match with anyone.

I never want to quit playing ball. They'll have to cut this uniform off of me to get me out of it.

I was tired of getting last or fifth or sixth. I was tired of falling multiple times in a program. I was tired of competing differently than how I trained. If I was going to do that, why train so hard? I took a step back, and I figured out what I wanted to change about myself.

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

I want to play Test cricket until I die, seriously.

I love cycling. I am going to keep racing as hard as I can until this body doesn't allow me to any more.

Two weeks ago, I was in a fantastic situation, winning at Roland Garros. Now, losing in the first round, it's tough. The tour continues. Life continues. This is a sport of victories, not a sport of losses. Nobody remembers the losses. I don't want to remember the loss.

The artful pitcher must take the inevitable peaks and valleys of pitching in stride and never give in to the batters or lose sight of his/her own strengths.

When I feel like my body is exhausted, I focus on making my fifth Olympic team so I can push through it.

Borg's won Wimbledon four straight times and out there he has just lost an 18-16 tie breaker. You'd think maybe once he'd let up and say forget it. But oh, no way.

I've had asthma my whole life. My mom used to hook the generator up to the Suburban and roll the extension cord all the way down to the football field and have my nebulizer hooked up to that so I could take treatments in between offense and defense. I was in the fifth grade when she started doing that.

Everyone is really afraid of getting out there and not being good. That's the challenge: To be afraid and know people are staring at you and know you might not do all that well, but you do it anyway. What singles out the successful athlete from the ones who never make it past a plateau, it that successful athletes risk failure, even though they are terrified.

A boy shows how much he wants to play in the spring, when it's tough, and during two a days, when it's hot and tough.

Being a great athlete is something that requires a lot of training and dedication, it does not come as easily as some people may think.