Olympic Journey Quotes

My life has been a whirlwind since the '94 Olympics.

I have always wanted to compete in the Olympic Games.

The goal for me is the Olympics. It's Sochi and doing my best there. And, you know, my best has the potential to be on the podium.

I now have Youth Olympic, Olympic and European Games titles, which is a dream. I didn't fight that well and just scraped through a lot of the fights, but winning is a relief, and it's more points towards the Rio Olympics, which takes a bit of pressure off me.

Hopefully I get to do more than one Olympics in my lifetime.

I did pretty well at the Sydney Olympics, but those were my first Games.

It's been a dream of mine to be selected on the U.S. Olympic team as long as I can remember.

I feel very fortunate. I feel like an Olympian. When I watch the Olympics, I cry because I have been through that journey.

I've dreamed about going to the Olympics ever since I was young.

I couldn't believe just how emotional I was about the London Olympics. Before the Games even started, I was reading a newspaper sitting in a hair salon and my mom looked over at me and I was just sobbing, because something about seeing the rings and hearing the athletes' excitement and just kind of knowing exactly what they were going through.

It wasn't an easy journey to participating in the Olympics. It has taken me 14 years of training and hard work.

I think it's when I won the Youth Olympics I thought, 'I can really get gold in London.'

When I saw the 2010 Games and speed skating, I had a change of heart. I had always dreamed of being an Olympian, and something clicked inside of me. I knew I had to move to Salt Lake City and make this dream a reality.

I always look back to my first Olympic medal in 2004 in Athens. I was very new to the sport, and it was my first big win at the Olympics.

I started track and field when I was 12 and didn't get to an Olympic Games until I was nearly 23. By any stretch of the imagination that's a very long apprenticeship.

And from that nineteen sixty four, this was my goal to go to Olympic Games. And I realized what does it mean, Olympic Games, like big celebration.

You feel the Olympics and you get chills and nervous and a little scared. You go through the emotional roller coaster at what it's like to compete at the Olympic level and you let that run through your whole body.

I know everyone has Olympic dreams, but if you really think about it, you just don't want to go to the Olympics. You want to be a gold medalist at the Olympic Games.

Four years ago, I felt the importance of the Olympics and how it is different from other events. It's a completely different atmosphere. The main advice I can give my teammates is to try to enjoy the experience.

I miss my kids, and they miss me. It's very difficult, but I have to do it for my country and fulfill my dreams coming to the 2012 London Olympics.

I always thought the Vancouver Olympics would be my last destination, but I'm extending it to Sochi... I want to start anew, not as an Olympic medalist but just as yet another figure skater.

I had a very ordinary background in Sheffield; I went to a secondary modern, but I saw something on TV in 1968 that inspired me to join an athletics club, and 12 years later, with great coaching and the support of people who loved me a lot, I ended up at an Olympic Games.

Not a lot of people get to go to the Olympics - especially with the chance I've got.

London was my first Olympics, but I tried for three beforehand. I was measured for the Olympic uniform three times before London, and I finally made the team. It was a big deal, and it was quite emotional, which is probably one of the reasons I didn't perform at my best.

I have a lot of expectations and a lot of goals I want to fulfill, but the biggest dream is still to make the Olympic team for London.