I’m thrilled that I was able to share my first Olympic Games experience with my U.S. teammates.
It was what I’ve always wanted, more than anything: to be an Olympic hero rather than a Tour de France star, something I had from childhood.
I don’t believe in the so-called Olympic spirit. I speak from personal experience. When China hosted the Games, it failed to include the people. The event was constructed without regard for their joy.
I want to experience that massive adrenalin rush when you step into a new stadium, all the more so when that Olympic Stadium is packed full of people waving British flags.
Teofilo Stevenson won his first Olympic gold medal in 1972 and his last world amateur championship in 1986. He won 302 fights and once went an unbelievable 11 years without a loss. Had Cuba not boycotted the 1984 Summer Olympics, many think Stevenson would have won an unmatched four gold medals in boxing.
I was never invited to the White House. They invited that Olympic Russian gymnast – that little Communist, Olga Korbut.
It took me a few years to explain to my colleagues and my mentors and the people that I looked up to and I wrestled that I’m not in wrestling anymore. I’m in sports entertainment. Pro’ wrestling doesn’t mean that we’re saying we’re a step up above amateur wrestling, because there’s nothing above Olympic wrestling.
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.
It’s an Olympic year, man, and crazy stuff always happens in an Olympic year.
I have a lot of very happy memories of the Olympic Games, and the final against Nigeria and the goal mean an awful lot to me.
I will always be grateful for having that opportunity to be part of a home Olympic games. It is a memory I will cherish forever.
I think that’s the beauty of the Olympics. There’s always a story. There’s always someone you’re invested in. There are so many Olympic moments that resonate with people all across Canada, and I think that’s the beauty of it.
I think if I am to win an Olympic medal I’ll have to score like I did today.
If I had tried the Olympics any younger, I wouldn’t have been as prepared as I am right now. But there are definitely a ton of juniors out there, all around the world and in the USA, that if there was no age limit, they could definitely make the Olympic team.
Swimming and athletics are the big gigs at the Olympic games. Cycling and rowing are pretty big for Britain, but globally, the two big things are athletics and swimming.
While football embarrassingly exposes the excesses of capitalism, the Olympic sports have been used to propagate the neoliberal mantra that success is simply a matter of hard work.
To be frank, you can’t compare the atmosphere and the way people behaved in the Olympic Stadium with the game I watched the day after, the Community Shield.
Hockey suffers from being compared to itself in ways that other sports are not. Every four years, some of us fawn over Olympic hockey, a great event with bigger rinks, minimal goonishness and national pride in addition to the heightened skills of veritable all-star squads.
Figure skating is an unlikely Olympic event but its good television. It’s sort of a combination of gymnastics and ballet. A little sexy too which doesn’t hurt.
I hate how late we have our Olympic Trials, always have.
Olympic wrestling is like using an old Nokia phone; it’s fairly basic.
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.
I ran the effort to bring the 2012 Olympic Games to New York City. We lost – on a global scale. To my surprise, life went on, and I learnt that nobody cares about your failures as much as you do.
To win an Olympic gold would be very special for me.
Throughout my entire life, I’ve always been a captain. I was the captain of my high school team. I was the captain at Oklahoma State University. I was the captain of the 2008 Olympic team.
It’s really incredible to win an Olympic Gold in your home city.
Whether at the Olympic Games or during a Davis Cup tie I am extremely proud and honored to represent my country.
It had been a dream of mine to go to an Olympic Games since I was about seven years old. I didn’t know I’d do it ski jumping, but that’s how it turned out.
I had been on this improv team at this really great improv theater. It’s called iO now. It used to be called Improv Olympic. They have showcases for Lorne Michaels and other writers and people who work at ‘SNL’ usually about once a year, although I don’t know if it always happens.
The Olympic Games are highly commercialised. They purport to follow the traditions of an ancient athletics competition, but today it is the commercial aspect that is most apparent. I have seen how, through sport, cities and corporations compete against each other for financial gain.
Sustainability goes across everything I do with Adidas and everything I do with my own house, so the Olympic kit is no exception. It is incredibly environmental in the way that it is manufactured. For example, there’s no leather; it’s free from PVC. There’s lots of woven materials, which means a lot less waste.
We’re in a pressure-filled sport for sure, but anything in an Olympic season is heightened, the highs are higher and the lows are lower, and everything just takes on grander proportions.
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.
My goal is to win a gold medal at the Olympic Games, and I’ll fight and continue going until I do that.
There’s an adage that a lot of coaches have, that I completely disagree with, is if you make the Olympic team too early you become complacent.
Much in the way Olympic athletes optimize their game by paying an enormous – borderline maniacal – amount of attention to things like diet, exercise, sleep, and of course the essential R&R, we all would do well to pay more attention to those key aspects of our lives that comprise our overall health equation.
I’m trying to make better choices, and for me, this is kind of a rebirth. If I make the Olympic team? Great. If not, look at myself after eight years and ballooning up almost 200 pounds and getting on ‘The Biggest Loser.’ You know what? I get my life back again, and that’s what truly mattered to me.
There’s a lot more to life than just the Olympic Games.
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.
If I would have won that Olympic gold medal, I would have gotten a job somewhere coaching at a university, and I would be totally content with my life.
The Olympic Games are the greatest sporting event in the world.
I’ve interviewed presidents and royalty, rock stars and movie stars, famous generals and captains of industry; I’ve had front row seats at Super Bowls, World Series, and Olympic Games; my books have been on best-seller lists, and my marriage is a long-running success.
My father used to say to me, ‘The only limit to your success is your own imagination.’ I actually believed that – like, I’m still coming to terms with the fact that I might not be an Olympic figure skater.
Winning an Olympic gold medal is like nothing else.
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 harder to be a dad than an Olympic champion.
I still really haven’t sat down and said ‘yeah, I’m ranked No. 1 in the world and I’m an Olympic Gold Medalist.’ It just hasn’t hit me.
I feel that I had been rescued from the gutter by America. One day I was under the gutter, chased by police, thinking dogs were going to get me. I laid there listening to the dogs and the gutter. The next day, there I am standing on the Olympic platform, and you hear the anthem. I was proud.
I’ve won junior titles, ABA titles and boxed for England all over the world against future Olympic champions as an amateur – and then beat world-class fighters as a professional.
It’s the Olympics. And it was a long way for me. To compete at the Olympic Games, I dreamed of any medal, but frankly speaking, I wanted a gold one.
Growing up I definitely looked up to Dominique Moceanu. She was my favorite gymnast and she was on that ’96 Olympic team. She was always so fun to watch. I kind of wanted to model my career after hers.
It is effectively a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be involved, and the chance to win an Olympic medal would be amazing.
I hope the BWF (Badminton World Federation) will seriously do something about the Olympic qualifying format or risk getting badminton dropped from the Games.
You go from Olympic wrestling into pro wrestling, and it’s a very difficult transition, but if you make it, you can earn a great living while at the same time giving amateur wrestling a lot of exposure by being on TV every week. Fans know where you came from.
