These Olympics quotes will inspire you. The modern Olympic Games or Olympics are leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competitions.
A collection of motivating, happy, and encouraging Olympics quotes, Olympics sayings, and Olympics proverbs.
Famous Olympics Quotes
- “The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part; the essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well.” ~ Pierre de Coubertin
- “The only victory that counts is the one over yourself.” ~ Jesse Owens
- “The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.” ~ Pierre de Coubertin
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“Nothing is impossible. With so many people saying it couldn’t be done, all it takes is an imagination.” ~ Michael Phelps
- “The important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle.” ~ Pierre de Coubertin
- “I am building a fire, and everyday I train, I add more fuel. At just the right moment, I light the match.” ~ Mia Hamm
- “When anyone tells me I can’t do anything, I’m just not listening anymore.” ~ Florence Griffith Joyner
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“The Olympic Games are for the world and all nations must be admitted to them.” ~ Pierre de Coubertin
- “The first thing is to love your sport. Never do it to please someone else. It has to be yours.” ~ Peggy Fleming
- “A lifetime of training for just ten seconds.” ~ Jesse Owens
- “I wanted no part of politics. And I wasn’t in Berlin to compete against any one athlete. The purpose of the Olympics, anyway, was to do your best. As I’d learned long ago from Charles Riley, the only victory that counts is the one over yourself.” ~ Jesse Owens
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“After the ’96 Olympics, we all started believing that this is bigger than we thought, and we were willing to do the work. We knew that it was up to us, the players, to make soccer successful.” ~ Brandi Chastain
- “I hope that this medal inspires the kids at home to put down guns and knives and pick up a pair of trainers instead.” ~ Erick Barrondo
- “I have been dubbed ‘the girl who puts the glamour into hammer'” ~ Sophie Hitchon
- “Sometimes it’s just the beer and bikinis that get people to come and watch, but it’s the competition that’s keeping them there.” ~ Kerri Walsh
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“Curling is not a sport. I called my grandmother and told her she could win a gold medal because they have dusting in the Olympics now.” ~ Charles Barkley
- “There is something in the Olympics, indefinable, springing from the soul, that must be preserved.” ~ Chris Brasher
- “You have to train your mind like you train your body.” ~ Bruce Jenner
- “Finishing second in the Olympics gets you silver. Finishing second in politics gets you oblivion.” ~ Richard M. Nixon
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“I didn’t set out to beat the world; I just set out to do my absolute best.” ~ Shaun White
- “It has been said that the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games is something that an athlete will remember for the rest of their life. It is true. That moment when you walk into the Olympic Stadium as part of the Australian Olympic Team, is a moment that I will never forget.” ~ Jeff Fenech
- “There’s always a point where you get knocked down. But I draw on what I’ve learned on the track: If you work hard, things will work out.” ~ Lolo Jones
- “When you’re expected to win and you have the press saying that you are going to win the Olympic gold medal, and you’re the only sure thing in the Olympics, it can undermine your confidence.” ~ Scott Hamilton
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“The Olympic Games must not be an end in itself, they must be a means of creating a vast program of physical education and sports competitions for all young people.” ~ Avery Brundage
- “It is the inspiration of the Olympic Games that drives people not only to compete but to improve, and to bring lasting spiritual and moral benefits to the athlete and inspiration to those lucky enough to witness the athletic dedication.” ~ Herb Elliott
- “Never put an age limit on your dreams.” ~ Dara Torres
- “The Olympics remain the most compelling search for excellence that exists in sport, and maybe in life itself.” ~ Dawn Fraser
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“I love the Olympic Games. The Olympics are an event that few can fathom but all can enjoy, and that’s why athletes work our whole lives to put on the greatest show on Earth.” ~ Johnny Weir
- “An Olympic medal is the greatest achievement and honor that can be received by an athlete. I would swap any World Title to have won gold at the Olympics.” ~ Jeff Fenech
- “The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.” ~ Pierre de Coubertin
- “If you don’t try to win you might as well hold the Olympics in somebody’s back yard.” ~ Jesse Owens
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“The potential for greatness lives within us all.” ~ Wilma Rudolph
- “To anyone who has started out on a long campaign believing that the gold medal was destined for him, the feeling when, all of a sudden, the medal has gone somewhere else is quite indescribable.” ~ Sebastian Coe
- “Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit. We are all the same in this notion: The potential for greatness lives within each of us.” ~ Wilma Rudolph
- “We have been actively trying to have New York City host the 2012 Olympics.” ~ George Pataki
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“In Hollywood you can see things at night that are fast enough to be in the Olympics in the day time.” ~ Will Rogers
- “There can be distractions, but if you’re isolated from the heart of the Games, the Olympics become just another competition.” ~ Mary Lou Retton
- “Performance enhancing drugs are banned in the Olympics. OK, we can swing with that. But performance ‘debilitating’ drugs should not be banned. Smoke a joint and win the 100 metres, fair play for you. That’s pretty good. Unless someone’s dangling a Mars bar off in the distance.” ~ Eddie Izzard
- “My only focus was the Olympics because in my sport, that is the ultimate. Everything is geared toward that, and my entire life was geared around getting there and winning gold.” ~ Cammi Granato
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“I remember at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Shaq always wanted me to show him steps over and over.” ~ Hakeem Olajuwon
- “I still can’t believe I won the Olympics. That’s what I feel right now – completely alive as a human being. It’s a really beautiful moment.” ~ Clara Hughes
- “I run to be known as the greatest runner, the greatest of all time. I could not eat or sleep for a week after I lost in the (1992) Olympics. I have to win or die.” ~ Noureddine Morceli
- “As a kid, you dream of winning the Stanley Cup. As you get older, you understand the importance of winning the Olympics.” ~ Joe Sakic
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“There were no competitions on television. The first skating competition I ever remember seeing on television was the 1968 Olympics when Peggy Fleming won.” ~ Dorothy Hamill
- “If there’s anything that is the center of my career both creatively and emotionally, it’s the Olympics.” ~ Dick Ebersol
- “I have to consider my greatest accomplishments winning the Olympics because everything that Ive done after that is really because of the Olympics.” ~ Brian Boitano
- “Holding an Olympic Games means evoking history.” ~ Pierre de Coubertin
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“For athletes, the Olympics are the ultimate test of their worth.” ~ Mary Lou Retton
- “The greatest memory for me of the 1984 Olympics was not the individual honors, but standing on the podium with my teammates to receive our team gold medal.” ~ Mitch Gaylord
- “The Olympic Games were created for the exhaltation of the individual athlete.” ~ Pierre de Coubertin
- “I always thought, it would be neat to make the Olympic team.” ~ Michael Phelps
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“If you’re fail to prepare, you’re prepared to fail.” ~ Mark Spitz
- “The road to the Olympics, leads to no city, no country. It goes far beyond New York or Moscow, ancient Greece or Nazi Germany. The road to the Olympics leads — in the end — to the best within us.” ~ Jesse Owens
- “Winning medals wasn’t the point of the Olympics. It’s the participating that counts.” ~ Pierre de Coubertin
- “Each of us has a fire in our hearts for something. It’s our goal in life to find it and keep it.” ~ Mary Lou Retton
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“I’ve realized the extraordinary power of sports to heal, unite and inspire. I believe the Olympics will serve as the ultimate platform to provide positive changes and I hope to inspire all of Japan through my strong showing there.” ~ Kohei Uchimura
- “I didn’t know how I was going to get to the Olympics, and in the beginning, I didn’t really care. And that was the best part, because my desire exposed me to so many different sports, and in all of them, I always dedicated my best effort because I knew that’s what it was going to take to become an Olympian.” ~ Gretchen Bleiler
- “The Olympics start on Friday, and Russia is implementing the most intensive security in Olympics history. During the games, the government will monitor every email, every social media message, and listen in on every phone call. In fact, people are even comparing Russia to the United States, that’s how bad it is.” ~ Jay Leno
- “The six colors, including the white background, represent the colors of all the world’s flags … this is a true international emblem.” ~ Pierre de Coubertin
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“You are the stars and the world is watching you. By your presence, you send a message to every village, every city, every nation. A message of hope. A message of victory.” ~ Eunice Kennedy Shriver
- “In MMA it’s a lot less intimidating because it’s not like you get one shot at a title every four years. You get a title shot every couple of months … With the Olympics, you don’t always have this, so there is so much more pressure involved.” ~ Ronda Rousey
- “When we stage the Olympics it will inspire kids all over the country. A kid in Scotland or Ireland will be encouraged to take up sport.” ~ Daley Thompson
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“When I went to the Olympics, I had every intention of shaving the moustache off, but I realized I was getting so many comments about it — and everybody was talking about it — that I decided to keep it.” ~ Mark Spitz
- “You can’t enter the Olympics unless you do your routine to get in shape for it. The idea of going out on stage on a tour without having prepped for it would be suicide, literally.” ~ Paul Stanley
- “The Olympics are only once every four years so you have to take advantage of all your opportunities, both to be an inspiration to people and help support your sponsors who help you.” ~ Lolo Jones
