Dive Into Inspiration: The Ultimate Collection of Inspirational Quotes for Swimmers

"I think goals should never be easy, they should force you to work, even if they are uncomfortable at the time."

- Michael Phelps

"Nothing is impossible. With so many people saying it couldn’t be done, all it takes is imagination."

- Michael Phelps

"Things won’t go perfect. It’s all about how you adapt from those things and learn from mistakes."

- Michael Phelps

"The more you believe in yourself, the faster you’re going to get."

- Adam Peaty

"Practice like you’re not good enough to win. Race like you’re too good to lose."

- Katie Ledecky

"I want to test my maximum and see how much I can do. And I want to change the world of swimming."

- Michael Phelps

"Being your best is not so much about overcoming the barriers other people place in front of you as it is about overcoming the barriers we place in front of ourselves…But it does have everything to do with having the vision to dream, the courage to recover from adversity and the determination never to be shifted from your goal."

- Kieren Perkins

"I just felt like I can try to do something special."

- Chad le Clos

"It’s not who’s put up the fastest time in the world that year, or who’s put up the fastest time in the previous four years, but who can get their hand on the wall first today."

- Nathan Adrian

"You are always racing against the other swimmers, but I always try to just focus on what I’m doing and how I want to swim my races."

- Katie Ledecky

"I knew I had all kinds of work to do and I left no stone unturned. But on the day I actually got to the Olympics there was this incredible, overwhelming, feeling that someone has to win this race and why not me?"

- Mark Tewksbury

"I concentrate on preparing to swim my race and let the other swimmers think about me, not me about them."

- Amanda Beard

"I’m trying to do the best I can. I’m not concerned with tomorrow, but with what goes on today."

- Mark Spitz

"Getting to the Olympics was, has always been, my swimming dream since I was 8 or 9 years old. You know, right after I started swimming it was, ‘I want to make an Olympic team. That’s where I want to be.'"

- Eric Shanteau

"The most important lesson I’ve learned from sports is how to be not only a gracious winner, but a good loser as well. Not everyone wins all the time, as a matter of fact, no one wins all the time. Winning is the easy part, losing is really tough. But, you learn more from one loss than you do from a million wins. You learn a lot about sportsmanship."

- Amy van Dyken

"I’ve swum for my country, I’ve swum for my coaches and my schools and my teams. I decided this time I was going to swim for myself."

- Janet Evans

"Swimming is normal for me. I’m relaxed. I’m comfortable, and I know my surroundings. It’s my home."

- Michael Phelps

"I’ve enjoyed training again, I’ve enjoyed pushing myself in the pool and I’ll keep on swimming until I feel I cannot get any more out of myself."

- Ian Thorpe

"A huge part of swimming for me is I love it, and it is so much fun."

- Missy Franklin

"I can’t imagine what I would be doing if I wasn’t swimming. It is what I want to do now; it is what I want to do in the foreseeable future, and that is what I’m focusing on."

- Cate Campbell

"Enjoy swimming for swimming’s sake. We have to spend far too much time in the water to not enjoy the process of challenging yourself of moving through the water."

- Jeff Rouse

"Mainly, I like to have fun. Swimming is all about having fun, and I am a firm believer that you should keep swimming as long as you are having fun, but I can say that it becomes much more fun as you get older and learn more about the sport, life, and especially more about yourself."

- Scott Goldblatt

"Being happy outside the pool means fast swimming in the pool."

- Alicia Coutts

"Believe in yourself, not only in swimming, but in life itself. You always have to have fun. You have to have an open mind. If you’re not enjoying it, don’t do it. Life’s too short."

- Debbie Meyer

"Excellence eliminates doubt."

- Anne Ottenbrite

"The things you learn from sports – setting goals, being part of a team, confidence – that’s invaluable. It’s not about trophies and ribbons. It’s about being on time for practice, accepting challenges."

- Summer Sanders

"Without goals, training has no direction."

- Natalie Coughlin

"Persistence can change failure into extraordinary achievement."

- Arnold Palmer

"While we are here we should set goals and achieve them, make the best of things, make others feel good about themselves, and be happy with what we are and what we are doing."

- Janet Evans

"There are days when I don’t feel motivated and I don’t want to get up to go to practice. I’m a very goal-oriented person, so I set short-term goals and try to reach those goals. And when I have those days, I think about those goals, and it gets me motivated."

- Dara Torres

"I try to make the good days great and take something positive from the days I’m not feeling good – work on technique or something like that."

- Katie Ledecky

"I am a firm believer that you don’t achieve greatness on your own. There is always someone there to lend a hand."

- Greg Louganis

"The reason swimming is one of the hardest sports is because you have to be in the pool by yourself every day, making that sacrifice. There’s no time to do anything else."

- Chad le Clos

"Swimming took up so much of my faculties, and for so long, I was willing to give it everything."

- Aaron Peirsol

"You don’t want to line up on the blocks and know you have not done everything you possibly can."

- Stephanie Rice

"Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected."

- Steve Jobs

"The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender."

- Marv Levy

"There is no substitute for hard work."

- Thomas A. Edison

"In training, I always brought my attention back to how I wanted to feel in my races. If I need to work on my body position at the end of my races, then I would push myself in practice to the point of exhaustion then work on my body position when exhausted."

- Natalie Coughlin

"I think about my goals when I wake up and what I have to do that day. Then, at the end of the day, I do a recap and think about what I did well and what I could have improved."

- James Magnussen

"I concentrate on preparing to swim my race and let the other swimmers think me, not me about them."

- Amanda Beard

"I try to make the good days great and take something positive from the days I’m not feeling good—work on technique or something like that."

- Katie Ledecky

"Never put an age limit on your dreams."

- Dara Torres

"Not everyone wins all the time… Winning is the easy part, losing is really tough."

- Amy van Dyken

"Olympic champions should be 100 percent athletes who have made sacrifices."

- Adam Peaty

"If you fail to prepare, you're prepared to fail."

- Mark Spitz

"At the start of each day, I remind myself, my toughest opponent is in the mirror."

- Ryan Lochte

"You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have."

- Cayla Mills

"In training everyone focuses on 90% physical and 10% mental, but in the races its 90% mental because there’s very little that separates us physically at the elite level."

- Elka Graham

"Never worry about what anyone else is doing…Just swim your own race."

- Dara Torres

"We’ve seen, time and again, when people focus on the outcome rather than what needs to be done to achieve a desirable result, then the wheels fall off."

- Cate Campbell

"The water is your friend…..you don’t have to fight with water, just share the same spirit as the water, and it will help you move."

- Alexandr Popov

"I can’t control what everyone else swims but if all goes well I know there are no limits."

- Leisl Jones

"I’ve learned so much over the last few years, I’ve had ups and downs but I feel more motivated than ever to be the best person and athlete I can be."

- Penny Oleksiak

"We all experience doubts and fears as we approach new challenges. The fear diminishes with the confidence that comes from experience and faith. Sometimes you just have to go for it and see what happens. Jumping into the battle does not guarantee victory, but being afraid to try guarantees defeat."

- Brian Goodell

"A true champion knows how to overcome doubts and manage those doubts and turn them into motivation."

- Misty Hyman

"Enjoy the journey, enjoy every moment and stop worrying about winning and losing."

- Matt Biondi

"Sometimes we complain, but there is something beautiful about waking up before everyone to get better at what we love."

- Missy Franklin

"It’s what you do with the rough patches that will define the athlete that you’ll become."

- Dana Vollmer

"In training, everyone focuses on 90% physical and 10% mental, but in the races it's 90% mental because there’s very little that separates us physically at the elite athlete level."

- Elka Graham

"If there is a dream or a goal that you want you have to go for it 100%."

- Alia Atkinson

"Identify your personal limits and then push past them… again, and again."

- Nicole Haislett

"For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them."

- Aristotle

"Focusing is about saying ‘No."

- Steve Jobs

"Wins and losses come a dime a dozen. But effort, nobody can judge effort. Because effort is between you and you."

- Ray Lewis

"Wins and losses come a dime a dozen. But effort, nobody can judge effort. Because effort is between you and you. Effort ain’t got nothing to do with nobody else."

- Ray Lewis

"Promise me you’ll always remember: You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think."

- A.A. Milne

"What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals."

- Zig Ziglar

"You are what you do, not what you say you’ll do."

- C.G. Jung

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit."

- Aristotle

"I swam the race like I trained to swim it. It is not mathematical. I just let my body do it. It is a lot easier if you let your body do what it is trained for."

- Ian Thorpe

"For myself, losing is not coming second. It’s getting out of the water knowing you could have done better. For myself, I have won every race I’ve been in."

- Ian Thorpe

"I don’t know if I practiced more than anybody, but I sure practiced enough. I still wonder if somebody — somewhere — was practicing more than me."

- Larry Bird

"There are a lot of people that are very talented. But just don’t work at it. It’s a waste of talent if you don’t work at it and improve."

- Tracy Caulkins

"The reason swimming is one of the hardest sports is that you have to be in the pool by yourself every day, making that sacrifice. There’s no time to do anything else."

- Chad le Clos

"Tonight was not about winning, it was about focusing on myself and what I was aiming to do. It’s the reason why I was able to swim so well."

- Libby Lenton

"I know I’ve made huge gains in my confidence and knowing more about my racing and myself as a person. That has made me a better athlete."

- Libby Lenton

"People ask me ‘what was going through your mind in the race?’ and I don’t know. I try and let my body do what it knows."

- Ian Thorpe

"Enjoy the journey, enjoy every moment, and quit worrying about winning and losing."

- Matt Biondi

"When you’re racing you can’t hear anyone and you’re just in your head. It’s pretty cool to know that everything is just you and it’s just a mental game."

- Penny Oleksiak

"In most sports they have a physical effect on your performance, in swimming only psychological. If you worry about what your rival is doing, you take your mind off what you are doing and so fail to concentrate on your performance."

- Louis Fabian Bachrach

"If you’re scared to lose rather than excited to win, then that’s the wrong way to approach a race."

- Cate Campbell

"Swimming is one of the hardest sports."

- Stephanie Rice

"Peak performance is meditation in motion."

- Greg Louganis

"I want people to see the passion I have for swimming and become more involved in the sport."

- Ryan Lochte

"Swimming is great because there are levels of goals. First, when I was four, it was making it to the other end and overcoming the fear of standing up in front of everybody at a swim meet because I was such a shy kid."

- Summer Sanders

"My whole swimming career was about training to beat Michael Phelps in any race I possibly could."

- Chad le Clos

"It’s a beautiful thing, diving into the cool crisp water and then just sort of being able to pull your body through the water and the water opening up for you."

- Dawn Fraser

"Remember to do the things you enjoy away from swimming, regularly."

- Ian Thorpe

"I always tell people, I’m a better swimmer because I’m a mom and a better mom because I’m swimmer."

- Amanda Beard

"If you want me to swim fast, you have to let me enjoy my life."

- Amanda Beard

"Make yourself an example, achieve it, but don’t hurt anyone on the way up."

- Dawn Fraser

"It’s unbelievable, I’m swimming so fast. I went in with no expectations. I just went out hoping to get a personal best. I went out there with a smile, just to have fun and see what would happen."

- Jade Edmistone

"Swimming is simply moving meditation."

- Cesar Nikko Caharian

"The brilliant thing about swimming is that, while you’re doing it, there’s nothing else you could be getting on with, like the ironing or sorting out the children. My mind goes into free-float mode; some of the best ideas for plots come into my head while I’m ploughing up and down the pool."

- Sophie Hannah

"The best swimmers are the ones that almost don’t try the most… It’s just about relaxing and enjoying it."

- Cate Campbell

"Traveling to swimming meets took me beyond my small-town existence, gave me a hint of the exciting world outside of my own home."

- Esther Williams

"Whether being battered by the surf or swimming through the gentle undulating surface of lakes, I find inspiration in the movement of water. Sometimes I think about the journey the water has traveled, reconnecting me to the larger cycles of nature."

- Janet Echelman

"If you’re going through hell, keep going."

- Winston Churchill

"It’s easy to forget when you’re an elite athlete that everyone else gets nervous as well. Even the best people in the world, at whatever they do, they’re still nervous."

- Leisl Jones

"The water is your friend. You don’t have to fight with water, just share the same spirit as the water, and it will help you move."

- Alexandr Popov

"In Athens I was 17 and I didn’t have any expectations. I was just swimming fast and racing everybody."

- Laure Manaudou

"The body does what the mind prefers."

- Lenny Krayzelburg

"Swimming is my passion and something that I love."

- Natalie du Toit

"Swimming isn’t everything – winning is."

- Mark Spitz

"Winners see what they want to have happened…"

- Grant Hackett

"From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a life."

- Arthur Ashe

"The robbed that smiles, steals something from the thief."

- William Shakespeare

"Have fun, because that’s what life is about."

- Ryan Lochte

"The water is your friend…you don’t have to fight the water, just share the same spirit as the water and it will help you move."

- Alexandr Popov

"I’ve just been enjoying the training a bit more. I’ve put too much pressure on myself in the past. Just relax and let it come. I just went out there to have a bit of fun tonight."

- Sophie Edington

"To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim you don’t grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead, you relax, and float."

- Alan Watts

"There’s just something about that cold rush that I know I hate and a lot of other swimmers hate."

- Natalie Coughlin

"Focusing is about saying No."

- Steve Jobs

"Swimming is a confusing sport, because sometimes you do it for fun, and other times you do it to not die. And when I’m swimming, sometimes I’m not sure which one it is."

- Demetri Martin

"This life is like a swimming pool. You dive into the water, but you can’t see how deep it is."

- Dennis Rodman

"I actually love swimming but I just hate jumping in the water."

- Natalie Coughlin

"Forever is composed of nows."

- Emily Dickinson

"No event in strongman competitions lasts longer than 40 seconds, so by swimming in fast bursts, my body is conditioned for the level of speed and power it needs."

- Eddie Hall

"The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do."

- Walter Bagehot

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."

"Great things never come from comfort zones."

"The price of excellence is discipline. The cost of mediocrity is disappointment."

- Anonymous

"Procrastination makes easy things hard, hard things harder."

"If it’s important to you, you will find a way. If not, you will find an excuse."

"I Only Fear Not Trying."