Top 45 P. T. Usha Quotes

Winning the 400 meters gold at the pre-Olympics gave me a little confidence. I thought I could win a medal if I tried.

The saddest part of my career has been missing the Olympic medal by one-hundredth of a second.

When you compete with better athletes, you also get better.

Athletes like Milkha Singh, Sriram Singh, T.C. Yohannan and I set our records at international meets under stringent conditions, against the stiffest competition.

Our actions, behavior, speech and for that matter anything that we do should strictly comply with our culture.

If life could come back, if I could roll back the years, I would like to relive my most cherished moment, the Los Angeles Olympics.

I always believe that speed is the essence for any sport.

It is great to see our young athletes get an opportunity to run on excellent tracks at the Medical College Stadium. And I am happy to see spectators coming in large numbers to cheer our young champions. That is something you would not see in many parts of Kerala.

I feel running is far easier than coaching.

Without Nambiar sir’s guidance I would not have been able to achieve what I did for the country.

I believe it’s an honor for me wherever I go in and around the country people still identify me and love me so much.

My stride is perfect for 15 steps till I cross the seventh hurdle when I switch to 17 steps.

May be someday a movie will be made on my life.

When I was a trainee at Kannur Sports School at the age of 13, my coach Nambiar sir used to tell us a lot of things about Milkha Singh – his achievements, lack of nervousness on the track, and a lot of fun stories about him.

There are many incidents in which I have seen and experienced cheap politics.

In the early 1980s, top athletes hardly got the kind of exposure needed.

I was traveling from Calicut to Patiala and was tired. I got several calls and then came to know that Milkha Singh had passed away. I felt very bad because we have lost Milkha ji.

My dad did not want me to take up sport initially, he was worried that I would get injured.

After winning a medal, many athletes give up and go into oblivion, the reason being lack of encouragement.

In my opinion happiness is nothing but satisfaction – satisfaction through work, thoughts and accomplishing our mission and vision.

The only realistic offer came from Nebraska University who offered me a scholarship to be a physical education director. What will a 24-year-old do with that? Retire and study?

‘Khelo’ Games is certainly a good idea. I am happy to see that the government is trying to do something to improve sports at the grass-roots level and that lots of money is being spent on it.

I was part of the Indian contingent that went to Karachi for an invitational meet, before the Moscow Olympics of 1980 and I was taking B-Complex in liquid form, as advised by Dr. P.M.K. Nambiar, a cardiac specialist based in Kannur.

The country has to identify and promote raw talent. I have full faith that India will win Olympic gold in athletics sooner than later.

Kerala is doing well because here the kids are encouraged to compete in sports, both by parents and teachers in schools.

I had to travel long distances to train on a synthetic track, which added to residual fatigue.

Two decades in athletics is a long time in sports.

All I can say is that we cannot shut our eyes to Western culture if that is not going to suit ours.

Athletes will get result with training and proper exposure. Money should be spent on them for exposure. We should send them for competitions in Europe.

There is so much of politics in sport that I sometimes wonder how did I survive for such a long time.

My life has actually been full of challenges and painful moments – but I tried to bury such circumstances and work with complete dedication.

During the time of Olympics I felt very lonely. Nobody was there at my side, to guide me or attend to my needs. In the Olympic village I had to travel alone up to the mess and competition ground as well as to the practice ground.

No one had told us that in L.A. we would get only American food. I had no choice but to eat rice porridge without any nutrition supplement, and that definitely affected my performance in the last 35 meters of my event since I couldn’t sustain the energy level.

For a sport like javelin throw, only if you’re physically there watching it from up close, will you get the feel of it.

Ours is a country with diversified culture and centuries-old tradition, which have to be preserved at any cost.

I fear human beings, because we cannot predict the swings of a human being. They are capable of doing anything. I really fear that.

Nobody talks about my contribution to the sport. Nobody talks about the 101 medals I have won in my 20-year career. Nobody talks about the efforts I made to attain those heights.

Before going to the L.A. Olympics, I had participated in only two competitions in 400m hurdles. Yet I came close to a medal. So if your mind is strong, you can achieve anything.

I was a vegetarian who would eat fish.

If I missed bronze by whisker, it was due to lack of experience.

If the mind says the injury is nothing, it will mean nothing. If the mind says competitions are nothing, it will mean nothing.

It was those medals I won at Kottayam that gave me the confidence to dream it big in athletics.

Spare a thought for people like me who sweated it out for our moment of glory and the joy we brought for the country. I had earned my records the hard way.

I come from a middle-class family in Kozhikode, Kerala.

If you want to be an engineer, doctor or scientist in today’s world, you need athletic ability in the body and mind.