Olympic Champions Quotes

Olympic champions should be 100 per cent athletes who have made the sacrifices.

There are many people who could be Olympic champions. All-Americans who have never tried. I'd estimate more than 5 million people could have beaten me in the pole vault the years I won it... at least 5 million. Men that were stronger, bigger and faster than I was could have done it, but they never picked up a pole, never made the feeble effort to pick their legs off the ground trying to get over the bar.

I've won junior titles, ABA titles and boxed for England all over the world against future Olympic champions as an amateur - and then beat world-class fighters as a professional.

We're the greatest athletes in the world without a doubt.

I'm not gonna lie, I love Usain Bolt and Serena Williams. What I love about Serena is that she just gets on the floor and she dominates. She handles her business very well, I respect that.

I don't know how many great Brazilians have played in the Olympics and not been able to win it.

Some of my best memories are sitting on my dad's lap, cheering on Olga and Nadia, Carl Lewis and others for their brilliance and perfection.

Obviously in 2008 it was 538 (to win an Olympic gold) and most of my scores have been over that this year.

Themistocles being asked whether he would rather be Achilles or Homer, said, "Which would you rather be, a conqueror in the Olympic games, or the crier that proclaims who are conquerors?

Usain Bolt, Tyson Gay, Justin Gatlin... to have my name up there with those types of guys is a blessing and a humbling feeling.

In wrestling, you're talking about a fraternity of champions, and I got a chance to be a part of that Olympic championship club. And anyone that ever won the Olympics in wrestling, there's something different about them.

I was told that there are about 900 gold medal winners in American Olympic history. When I thought about the number 900, I wondered how many kids that are influenced by a gold medal ever get to see a gold medal. What I thought was really neat was that I've already had a couple hundred kids touch my gold medal.

I swim when I am injured. What the best guys do is so hard. Michael Phelps is the best.

Kat and I were in our 20s when we won in '88. Our personalities were already established. We were ready to move on to a life of professional skating.

There's a lot of great Olympians, but for me, I try to prove myself as one of the best - and that's the key thing.

There are young children out there in our state, that could be Olympic champions at 2032 to think that Melbourne has hosted an Olympics, Sydney has hosted an Olympics, and now Queensland has that once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, we've got to give it everything we've got.