Top 50 Justin Gatlin Quotes

I’m a big believer in the notion that to know where you are going, you have to know where everything has been.

My son has asthma.

All I really want to do is race and get into meets and run.

I didn’t look at age as being a reason to stop running or become slower.

I allowed myself to get beat and I beat myself. That’s the worst feeling in the world.

In Brooklyn, the block wasn’t very long or very wide, and not that many kids were out there, either. But when I got to Florida, there were a lot of kids on my block, young kids, older kids, and they could play outside until the sun went down and have fun.

I wanted to see what sports were like… I went out for the track team. And then I got a D on my report card and my mom pulled me off the track team; I was very upset.

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.

For me it has always been an uphill battle because my mind’s always racing a mile-a-minute.

I need to win back the hearts of the critics and the skeptics.

Being perceived as a villain gave me energy.

I feel like once you start to tell yourself that it’s your last year, you kind of aren’t as sharp and lose some attention, drive and hunger.

If I am given an opportunity to fight for my freedom, then I am going to fight for it.

That’s just the mystery in the air of the Olympics. It’s full of dreams, and sometimes dreams don’t come true.

I’m 34, and I’ll be the oldest sprinter ever on a podium. I’m just happy to be here.

Track and field is a sport that’s about ‘What have you done for me lately?’

People want to label people and that’s all they want to do. They don’t want to get to know them, they don’t want to understand the story, in-depth.

At the end of the day, I think that a lot of people saw how hard I worked. And I’ve gained a lot of respect from a lot of the fans, when they come out and see me, even people not from the United States, when they come out there and cheer me and give me heart gestures and cheer for U.S.A.

I come out to do what everyone else is trying to do, which is run, run fast and win.

You never realize as an athlete there’s going to be an end until the end comes.

Critics are just what they are. They’re going to pick at the positivity of things.

There have been times in my career where I’ve been so dialed-in and focused, and I realized when people told me, ‘Do you remember this?’ And I’ll be like, ‘Oh, I don’t,’ because I was so focused on everything.

I think of myself as a time-jumper.

Everything was cool when I came back running 10.09. Now that I’m running some of the fastest times in history, people are uncomfortable.

Usually everyone fast is young. But I don’t let age define my ability and drive to be the best I can.

I’m not my sport, and I know I’m not going to run forever.

Just remember I am more than four years. I am more than two bans. I have done a lot before, and I have done a lot after that.

I find that as an athlete, we don’t get to speak our mind often or share our hearts. So I chose motivational speaking to help make a difference.

A lot of people over the last couple of seasons have fallen prey to the unstoppable force Usain Bolt brings to the table. And they just become subdued. That’s not who I am. I’m not going to allow myself to become a subdued character.

It’s an Olympic year, man, and crazy stuff always happens in an Olympic year.

I’ve worked hard, all the way from the bottom when I had nothing.

I want Usain at his best, and I think he wants me at my best. That’s what people want to see.

Once I found out that track and field was an organized sport, the era I followed more closely was that of Maurice Greene and Michael Johnson.

I was never a steroid user at all, at least not knowingly.

It’s hard academically for an ADD sufferer – but, doing something they love, they can be the most focused person of all.

I’m not just a runner. I’m not just a fast guy. I’m a fighter. I’m a survivor in life.

Track and field is definitely a science and each year as an athlete you try to develop and become stronger.

I was jogging in the grass while on a warm-up and there was a sprinkler hole. I rolled my ankle, and it was really bad.

The performance that we put out there as athletes is our heart, our heart.

ADD sucks during training, but coming into finals I actually feel such an energy burst because when I step out on to the track, and I hear so much and I see so many people and my mind gets distracted, I kind of just feel at home actually.

When I get up out of bed, I’ve got to be Justin Gatlin, and I’ve got to be Justin Gatlin 100 percent.

My expectations are to establish my dominance and kick butt. And I want to become a leader in the sport.

At the end of the day, when you command a certain power in track and field, you sometimes you have to exercise it.

Once I was away from track and field, I was able to realize that life is something you really have to work on.

I find little flaws I have in practice, I work on those and go to the gym or I eat better.

No one has to talk disrespectful to anybody. We’re just here to run.

There is no good runner or bad runner. We are just runners.

I respect my competitors, you know, I get respect back from them. I respect people out there who pay for their tickets to come watch us compete. And I respect the reporters because they’ve got to come out here and tell a good story. That’s what it is. It’s just a cycle of respect.

Everyone should give a second chance, but everyone is also entitled to their opinion.

I always need to find somewhere to sit, or something to lean on.