Politics In Sports Quotes

There's a lot of politics in boxing and it's destroying the game.

There was a lot of politics going on, and Ireland were denied an Olympic gold medal in 2008.

I am not a politician by nature, but I will say I think there need to be more women in FIFA, and I would be open to having those conversations when the time is right.

I think the scores for Olympic gymnastics are affected by what countries the judge and the gymnast are from. That's wrong. That type of political pandering isn't meant for gymnastic Olympic events. It's meant for the Supreme Court.

Do I want a shot at the belt? Yes, of course I do. Put it this way: I am Barry Sanders on the Detroit Lions. You love to watch me, but you'll never see me play in the Super Bowl. It's just one of those things. It's about politics. It's not about fighting.

I think the Olympic Games have been married to political statements. If I go back to Berlin in 1936, it was very politically orientated then, just with the Nazis.

If you look at the Olympic Games as a whole, if we would say we didn't want to interject politics into the games, then why are we using nation's flags? Why don't we use one Olympic flag to encompass all the Olympians, as opposed to being separatists in terms of China versus Russia or Russia versus the United States? Why don't we just say man versus man?

Smith and Carlos aside, I object to using the Olympic awards stand to make a political statement.

I hate it when politics play too large part in the sport.

Well, the problem is the freedom that the sport gives you without getting to politics. Unfortunately, you cannot now separate it because people cannot be truthful; they have to be politically correct. There's no more sincerity. What we had before was freedom of speech and freedom of expression without judgement. That's why I don't get into politics.

There is no reason why one should believe you should leave out politicians in cricket or any sport for that matter. There are ways and means in which government can assist in the management and development of players.

I don't believe that politics has to be part of the sporting world.

It's tricky when you have people tuning in to hear about sports, not politics, but I think in issues where they intertwine, that is not something 'First Take' is not going to shy away from and potentially will go to another level than another sports show.

In F1 too many things overshadow the racing. There is too much politics.

I love the Olympics, because they enable people from all over the world to come together and--regardless of their political or cultural differences--accuse each other of cheating.