I remember watching the 1992 Barcelona Games on TV, and I watched Limba Ram shoot. That was my first exposure to the Olympic Games.
From 15 or 16, I always wanted to be an Olympic champion, but I don’t think you ever believe it until it actually happens.
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.
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.
It’s like a dream come true, coming to the Olympic trails and leaving being the champion.
I watched my idol and fellow Dutchman Tiesto. He was the first DJ to play live on stage at an Olympic event – the Opening Ceremony of the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens. At eight years old, all I can remember thinking was, ‘I want to be a DJ.’
The women of the Senate are like the U.S. Olympic team: we come in different sizes, but we sure are united in our determination to do the best for our country!
Every Olympic athlete prepares differently. For me, I am 100 percent into the sport. And if I decide to really make a crucial career decision to say, ‘This is something I want to do,’ I want to leave no stone unturned in my preparation.
Gymnastics is my favorite Olympic sport, hands-down.
I looked at it, and it was like, ‘Can I push and make the Olympic squad?’ It is tough going from 18 players, including Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. I thought that might be a push too far for me. I had no Champions League with Chelsea. I lost my motivation.
To win a gold medal at Olympic Games has long been my dream ever since I started my career as a table tennis player.
You can’t be a creative thinker if you’re not stimulating your mind, just as you can’t be an Olympic athlete if you don’t train regularly.
Billy Konchellah with his World Championship titles, Paul Ereng with his Olympic gold and Wilson Kipketer with his World records are my role models.
I was fortunate enough to coach the U.S. Olympic team in Australia.
I think a four-year ban would effectively rule out one Olympic games – a life ban is too harsh. I think everyone deserves a second chance. If you come back from missing one Olympic games and serving a four-year ban, you are a pretty determined and reformed character.
In the history of sport in general, people stick around. Look at Shaun White and Lindsey Vonn just continue on, Olympic cycle after Olympic cycle; that is why they are famous.
I am very proud of my mom and consider her the most courageous woman I know. With perseverance, sacrifice and hard work, she raised a family of Olympic athletes and gave us the tools and the spirit to succeed. That is something that my brothers and I will always be thankful for.
In my very first interview, at nine years old, I said I wanted to be an Olympic gold medalist. That was the first time I said it out loud in front of somebody other than my parents.
I can’t say I have a lucky charm, but I do wear a 3/4-zip U.S.A. jacket I wear to every event. I got it from Nike, and it was from the 2012 Olympic Games.
I have played a few times in Barcelona, including the fantastic Olympic Stadium. It’s undoubtedly one of my favourite cities in terms of the people, arts, food, architecture and design.
This week, the world gathers in Beijing for the 2008 Olympic games. This is the extraordinary moment China has been dreaming of for 100 years. People have been longing for this moment, because it symbolises a turning point in China’s relationship with the outside world.
If you’re the Olympic champion then they have to wait four more years to get you again.
I have always had a dream to take part in an Olympic Games, and losing my leg didn’t change anything.
I want to get another Olympic medal outside the team event.
If the IOC would move the Olympic hockey tournament to the summer, that would be great. We’d be thrilled to have our players participate because then it doesn’t affect our season.
The Olympic Games are a global celebration of our hopes, our ideals and our values.
2012 has been an extraordinary year for our country. We cheered our Queen to the rafters with the Jubilee, showed the world what we’re made of by staging the most spectacular Olympic and Paralympic Games ever and – let’s not forget – punched way above our weight in the medals table.
Everybody kept saying I wasn’t going to get any fights. And they wouldn’t put me on TV and they don’t respect women’s boxing. But I also turned professional with two Olympic gold medals and that’s something that no other American boxer has ever done. With that, I’ve been getting a lot of respect.
There’s a lot of skaters that I look up to, and I think my biggest skating role models were the two Russian competitors at the 2002 Olympic games in Salt Lake City. They really motivated me to follow my passion in skating, and it really blossomed from there.
There are no words to describe what it would mean making the Olympic team.
If I’d gone into taekwondo, I’d probably have won several Olympic medals.
I always thought, it would be neat to make the Olympic team.
I want to be European, world and Olympic gold medallist.
I really didn’t feed off the whole Olympic experience at all, and I regret that from an athletic perspective, and also from a personal experience. I feel like I missed out, so I’m not going to do that this time.
In some ways, I’m in danger of doing too many things to be able to appreciate and enjoy them. I look forward to thinking back to carrying the Olympic torch, or going to the Royal Wedding, when I’m in the middle of the ocean on my own far from anywhere – that’s when I’ll relive those moments.
The Olympic Games are always in the head of every sports athlete. We work for that.
People who want to be singers can be nurtured and taught, and they can make great strides. But, the truth is, if you are completely tone deaf, it is never going to happen for you. It’s just a reality of life. It’s like me thinking I can be an Olympic swimmer. It ain’t gonna happen!
If I won a second Olympic title, maybe I would be tempted to go after a third.
What I can tell them is the way you become an Olympic champion is to start working now. I tell them why it’s always worth it to put the time and effort into something you want to be good at.
I still can’t believe I’m an Olympic athlete.
There is enough going on in Olympic year without having to do my own cooking and washing.
Every international meeting or championship I do, I can cope a lot better because I can say I did the 100 m. hurdles, opened up the athletics at an Olympic Games in front of a home crowd, 80,000 people.
People always say I’m a legend, but I’m not. Not until I’ve defended my Olympic titles. That’s when I’ve decided I’ll be a legend.
That’s because the International Olympic Committee has a policy of never replacing medals.
I’ve done it the hard way – first Olympic gold medallist from Great Britain to win a world title, the ‘road warrior.’ I love that tag because I do travel.
People tell me an Olympic medal is a life-changing event. Except I don’t even think about the medal unless someone asks about it.
As a British fashion designer, it is an amazing, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be creative director of Team GB as the hosting nation of the London 2012 Olympic Games.
