Inspiring Olympic Quotes to Ignite Your Passion

"You can't put a limit on anything. The more you dream, the farther you get."

- Michael Phelps

"Don’t put a limit on anything. The more you dream, the further you get."

- Michael Phelps

"It was our family’s dream, my dream, to get into the Olympic Games. That didn’t come true previously. But it’s OK. I’m now 58 years old, my dad is 92 years old. I finally made that dream come true for him."

- Zhiying Zeng

""If you don’t have confidence you’ll always find a way not to win.""

- Carl Lewis

"It’s not always about being the best; it’s about being my personal best and having fun and trying to always stay in a positive place."

- Jamie Anderson

""My only focus was the Olympics because in my sport, that is the ultimate. Everything is geared toward that, and my entire life was geared around getting there and winning gold.""

- Cammi Granato

"Failure I can live with. Not trying is what I can’t handle!"

- Sanya Richards-Ross

""The feeling of accomplishment welled up inside of me, three Olympic gold medals. I knew that was something nobody could ever take away from me, ever.""

- Wilma Rudolph

""You have to believe in yourself when no one else does — that makes you a winner right there.""

- Venus Williams

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

- Mark Spitz

"You will always miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take."

- Wayne Gretzky

""You can’t put a limit on anything. The more you dream, the farther you get.""

- Michael Phelps

"Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirits."

- Wilma Rudolph

"He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life."

- Muhammad Ali

"To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift."

- Steve Prefontaine

"The key is not the will to win. Everybody has that. It is the will to prepare to win that is important."

- Bobby Knight

""If you don’t have confidence, you’ll always find a way not to win.""

- Carl Lewis

"You have to believe in yourself when no one else does — that makes you a winner right there."

- Venus Williams

""He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.""

- Muhammad Ali

""I envision myself doing the same thing for the Olympic Games.""

- Simone Biles

"Nothing can substitute for just plain hard work. I had to put in the time to get back. And it was a grind. It meant training and sweating every day. But I was completely committed to working out to prove to myself that I still could do it."

- Andre Agassi

"If you think you can’t, you won’t, and if you think you can, you will."

- Kellie Wells

"Run when you can, walk when you have to, crawl if you must; just never give up."

- Dean Karnazes

"A lifetime of training for just ten seconds."

- Jesse Owens

"If you dream and allow yourself to dream, you can do anything."

- Clara Hughes

"The hard days are the best because that’s where champions are made."

- Gabby Douglas

""I don’t run away from a challenge because I am afraid. Instead, I run toward it because the only way to escape fear is to trample it beneath your feet.""

- Nadia Comaneci

""I had a rigorous plan and schedule in place that I had to adhere to. It was a step-by-step process of slowly but surely inching toward the Olympic Games and using every day as a series of goals to be accomplished.""

- Apolo Ohno

""You got to try and reach for the stars or try and achieve the unreachable.""

- Cathy Freeman

""If you dream and allow yourself to dream, you can do anything.""

- Clara Hughes

""I know what I have to do, and I’m going to do whatever it takes. If I do it, I’ll come out a winner, and it doesn’t matter what anyone else does.""

- Florence Griffith Joyner

""I touched the wall and all my dreams, hopes and ambitions basically coalesced into one moment.""

- Duncan Armstrong

""It’s been a dream for me since I was six years old to go to the Olympic Games and to finally have that dream realised is something massive for me.""

- Natalie du Toit

""Never quit. Never give up.""

- Gabby Douglas

""To uncover your true potential you must first find your own limits, and then you have to have the courage to blow past them.""

- Picabo Street

"I had goosebumps on the podium. I felt really proud to be myself, and to be French."

- Léon Marchand

"Once you mentally prepare yourself to do the jump, that is really half the battle. … You’re so closed off mentally because of the fear of doing. But once you’re able to set that aside, a lot of things can happen."

- Nathan Chen

"The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part; the essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well."

- Pierre de Coubertin

"Adversity and perseverance and all these things can shape you. They can give you a value and a self-esteem that is priceless."

- Scott Hamilton

"The first thing is to love your sport. Never do it to please someone else. It has to be yours."

- Peggy Fleming

"It’s all about the journey, not the outcome."

- Carl Lewis

"I heard that the medals from the Paris Olympics are actually made out of the steel that comes from the Eiffel Tower, so it feels like I’m taking a piece of Paris back home."

- Kim Woo-jin

""You have to beat the king to be the king. No one is going to hand you a gold medal.""

- Donovan Bailey

""Failure I can live with. Not trying is what I can’t handle.""

- Sanya Richards-Ross

"At the end of the day, obviously there is going to be some pressure that comes along with it, but at the same time it’s like, you know, ‘Wow, these people really believe in me and have all this confidence in me.’ I think that pushes me to be better and motivates me."

- Chloe Kim

""I am building a fire, and every day I train, I add more fuel. At just the right moment, I light the match.""

- Mia Hamm

""There’s always a point where you get knocked down. But I draw on what I’ve learned on the track: If you work hard, things will work out.""

- Lolo Jones

""Focus, discipline, hard work, goal setting and, of course, the thrill of finally achieving your goals. These are all lessons in life.""

- Kristi Yamaguchi

"I did not need the special equipment. I’m a natural, natural shooter."

- Yusuf Dikec

"The things you learn from sports – setting goals, being part of a team, confidence – that’s invaluable."

- Summer Sanders

""Falling in life is inevitable – staying down is optional.""

- Carrie Johnson

""In sport, if you want to be the best you have to compete against the best – I would much rather have come tenth and be judged against everyone than come first and be judged against just a few.""

- Daley Thompson

"Gold medals aren’t really made of gold. They’re made of sweat, determination, and a hard-to-find alloy called guts."

- Dan Gable

"You take a crash, you get back up, and next time you succeed and that's a great feeling."

- Shaun White

""This is my day. This is my purpose. I’m not afraid to win.""

- Kayla Harrison

"You can create your own miracle, but you do it by never looking past all the little steps along the way."

- Mikaela Shiffrin

""Without passion, you won’t do something 100 percent. That’s the bottom line.""

- Apolo Ohno

"This ability to conquer oneself is no doubt the most precious of all things sports bestows."

- Olga Korbut

""If you work hard, things will work out.""

- Lolo Jones

""I didn’t set out to beat the world; I just set out to do my absolute best.""

- Shaun White

""Acknowledge all of your small victories. They will eventually add up to something great.""

- Kara Goucher

"I hope that this medal inspires the kids at home to put down guns and knives and pick up a pair of trainers instead."

- Erick Barrondo

"Each of us has a fire in our hearts for something. It’s our goal in life to find it and keep it lit."

- Mary Lou Retton

"Training for the Olympics was a lifelong endeavor and took many years."

- Kristi Yamaguchi

""Making a change in your life is as easy as making a decision and acting on it. That’s it.""

- Ronda Rousey

""Winning doesn’t always mean being first. Winning means you’re doing better than you’ve ever done before.""

- Bonnie Blair

""As simple as it sounds, we all must try to be the best person we can: by making the best choices, by making the most of the talents we’ve been given.""

- Mary Lou Retton

""If you think you’re done, you always have at least 40 percent more.""

- Lauren Crandall

""Nothing can substitute for just plain hard work.""

- Andre Agassi

"I actually had a ref tell me that I needed to get my emotions in check. That just heightened my emotions even more, so I kept my cool by continuing to be me. To that ref, I'm going to keep yelling, I'm going to keep screaming, I'm going to keep cussing, because that's the game that I play."

- A’ja Wilson

""I think it’s better to attempt something and fail than it is to not even attempt it, so I’m glad that I’ve been prepared to put myself on the line there.""

- Ian Thorpe

"There is something in the Olympics, indefinable, springing from the soul, that must be preserved."

- Chris Brasher

"You're literally fighting another man, to the death, for six minutes. It's the closest thing to gladiator sport that we have. Countries or provinces or cities that are wrestling-rich will see those values. It breeds great people."

- Myles Amine

"We are the best team if we play at 100%. It’s not arrogant. It's realistic."

- Joosje Burg

"I know that God is working through me within this sport. I know he’s put me here for a purpose and it’s not just to win medals."

- Elana Meyers

"I didn’t lose the gold. I won the silver."

- Michelle Kwan

"I don’t believe in the medical science that says at 40 or 50 years old, you should not do certain things any more. That may be true for people who believe it, but for me, age is just a number."

- Leonel Martinez

"Skateboarding in the Olympic Games isn't much different from skateboarding in my neighborhood. It's just more spectators."

- Zheng Haohao

"When you are five goals ahead and 7,000 French people boo, I don't think there are many other feelings that are better than that."

- Kristian Skinstad Saeveraas

"In the quarterfinals, you're either going to paradise or you're going to hell."

- Alessandro Campagna

"Growing up, there wasn't an exact Hispanic role model that I had. I didn't realize how big a difference I was making, going to the Olympics and being Hispanic, until I would be in an autograph session, and parents would come up to me and say, 'You know, our family is so proud of you, you're really doing Hispanics proud.'"

"This is a movie. My life is a movie right now."