After I got my gold medal, I thought, ‘This isn’t just me. It belongs to my team, my friends, my family, the fans, everybody who’s impacted my life – this is our gold medal.’ So when someone asks to try it on, I’m like, ‘Sure, why not?’ I might be a little too relaxed about it, but why would I keep it to myself?
The Manchester games in 2002 was the breakthrough for me because I won my first individual Gold medal and that gave me the confidence to maybe think I could be a world beater.
I slept with my gold medal.
I’m glad to be partnered with Orgullosa because I feel that now that I’m able to win a gold medal at the Olympics, win a silver medal, I feel little girls will be able to look up to me, and Hispanics will kind of rise a little more.
I wouldn’t say that there’s ever been an Olympic champion that didn’t deserve to win an Olympic Gold Medal.
Winning that team-pursuit Olympic gold medal was unbelievable.
I always come into these competitions hoping to come away with a gold medal. I won’t relax until I have the gold medal around my neck.
My dream is to get gold medal both in the world championship and the Olympics.
When I win a gold medal in the Olympics… I would say every pain, tears and screams in training will be worth it.
I’d probably say the championships mean more to me, but the gold medal makes you a bit different. It’s a special award.
When I took the job as the manager of the Olympic team, I didn’t take it because I was a Dodger. I did it because I was an American, and I wanted to bring that gold medal where it belongs in baseball, the United States. And that’s exactly what our team did.
To finish off this whole Olympics by finally getting the gold medal, it’s the best feeling in the world.
I had a lot of wonderful accomplishments in the game of basketball. Of course, to win a gold medal for your country – it doesn’t get any better than that.
It took putting one foot in front of the other every single day to get through it to the point where I made it back on the team and won a gold medal in 2008.
I made a gym, it’s the best gym in Nicaragua, I have kids that this year July 6th through the 11th will be fighting and then will go on to the Central American Games and I’m sure at least one will win a gold medal.
I had my Olympic gold medal cut up into eleven pieces. Gave all eleven of my kids a piece. It’ll come together again when they put me down.
People say, ‘Wow, you’ve achieved it all this year: two world championship wins and an Olympic gold medal.’ And I think, ‘Yeah, but how come I feel so unsatisfied and under pressure all over again?’
Winning a gold medal is not easy but I believed in myself, especially over the last four years.
I can’t believe that I just won a gold medal. I think it will take a bit to sink in.
My stepdad is Bruce Jenner, the Olympian. The first time he came over was like a blind date, and we had show and tell. He took out the gold medal for me and my sisters, and we were like, ‘So? Who the hell are you?’
Winning an Olympic gold medal is like nothing else.
The pressure is high because of course… everyone’s expecting me to win the gold medal in Tokyo.
My goal is to win a gold medal at the Olympic Games, and I’ll fight and continue going until I do that.
You have got to go through all of the opponents to get to the gold medal.
A gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics is what I’m looking for. I have to pace my training in such a way that I’m at my best in Rio, and when I’m in form, no opponent can come in my way.
Gold medal always feels great. In fact, any appreciation or acknowledgement is a great morale booster.
Well my thoughts on American swimming are that our prospects look favorable, but we may not have as strong a showing in the gold medal count as in previous Olympics. But I am not coaching.
Yes, winning the gold medal was undoubtedly the biggest day of my career – mostly because I won the way I had prepared to run it. It was a totally satisfying experience.
Here were these college kids beating the Soviets and going on to the Olympic Gold Medal. To me, that’s the greatest upset of all time in any sport that I can think of.
If I win the gold medal, I will be set for the rest of my life. The medal itself doesn’t give you anything, but it makes you a marketable item. You take it and see what you can do.
You’re still a person with or without that gold medal. It just represents the hard work.
That’s the awesome part. Little girls now have a chance to look up and see women playing soccer, basketball, softball and now hockey – and know they can win a gold medal, too.
I think there are definitely times when I feel the expectations on my shoulders and I think it’s because even before I race people expect me to get a gold medal and it’s not the case.
If I bring back only one gold people are going to say it’s a disappointment. But not too many of them own an Olympic gold medal so if I get one I’m going to be happy.
London was the hardest Olympic Games, and before it, I was really just hoping to win a medal, even if it was not the gold medal. At the same time, I have my next target. I am not settling for three golds in a row. I now want to try for a fourth.
My one and only focus at the Olympic Games is to win a gold medal.
In 2004 after winning my first Olympic gold medal I was featured in magazines as an eligible bachelor. Soon after I started receiving unique and odd fan mail, mainly from female prisoners. I’ve gotten prison art and love letters throughout the years.
You don’t just go and pick up a gold medal anymore.
It means a lot to be an Olympian. I’m obviously so grateful and feel so lucky I was able to achieve my dream of winning an Olympic gold medal.
That’s what has always been good about track. The goal is very clearly defined: Try to win. Get the gold medal. And I’m able to put my energy toward that.
Winning the 2012 bronze medal was magnificent, but I would love to win a gold medal in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
A gold medal is a goal and something that we’ve never done before as the United States indoor women’s volleyball team.
It’s like a dream for me, participating in the Olympics, it’s so important for my career and I hope to win the gold medal here.
I could be winning the decathlon in high school, which I’ve won twice, yet, if my dad is in the audience, ‘Oh look! It’s Anthony Quinn.’ And I’m like, ‘Hello? Kid just got a gold medal. Hello? I’m over here.’
I’m going to win a gold medal.
That’s what the Olympics is about – getting your name on the wall, and that gold medal.
Because winning a gold medal had been a dream of mine since a young age, I needed to empty my mind during the preparation for the Olympics by telling myself that it would be OK not to win a gold medal.
Although it was a great accomplishment to win a gold medal, as soon as they put it on you, that’s it; your career is over.
No matter what, like, I couldn’t – I could break a world record, get an Olympic gold medal, and my mom would be, like, you could have done better. But you looked pretty. That’s what she says all the time.
Muhammad Ali meant everything to me. He inspired me to box after watching re-runs of him winning a gold medal in the Olympics and being a world champion.
I was able to represent my country and put on the red, white, and blue – how many people in the world get to do that? Standing on the podium with my teammates, and being the first women’s gymnastics team to win this gold medal, it was life-changing!
In 2016 I was fresh and raw and it was grit and determination which got me to the gold medal. Nobody really knew me and what I was capable of.
There are a lot of guys who play in the NBA. There aren’t a lot of guys who have a chance to win a gold medal, too.
I was running track early in my years and I was breaking track records in sprint running. I was training and I wanted to be in the Olympics. I thought I was going to be able to win a gold medal, and my mind was pretty much set on ‘this is what I want to do’.
Getting the Games for London has been the fulfilment of a dream. It is one which I truly believe can change the lives of hundreds of thousands of young people for the better. But in the end, nothing can quite compare with winning your first Olympic gold medal.
It’s an Olympic Games, at the end of the day, and to represent your country at the Olympics is about as good as it gets. Put a gold medal on top of that, and it doesn’t ever get any better.
While growing up, my dream and my goal was to win an Olympic gold medal. I did that, and both times, they were the proudest moments in my amateur career.
When a player cheats, you can’t have a gold medal, right?
I take a lot of pride in my first ’92 gold medal.
I’m extremely happy that I could win the gold medal. It’s a special moment in my career.
Going to the Olympics as a Maasai I want to make them proud because, after the warm welcome they gave me when I went back and being their leader, I want to also be the warrior in the Olympics. That will be something good because that will be the first Olympic gold medal for the Maasai.
Of course I want to bring home a gold medal, and that’s what I’m planning on doing. For me, that’s not pressure. It’s a chance to show the world who I am.
