Every athlete is looking for that next push. This list collects motivational quotes from athletes from every era of modern sports. These athletes pass on their words of wisdom to you so that you can get the same motivational drive that got them going. Think of this list as your personal coach, without all the yelling and spitting. George Halas Has No Regrets. “Nobody who ever gave his. Turning rote quotes from players and coaches giving 110 percent into good television is basically alchemy and these women are gold. Photos by AP Photo/James D Smith.
Every generation has its favorite athletes. Usually, these are pretty good professionals that are adored by the masses. And while there are hundreds if not thousands of skilled athletes, the number of those who truly excel in their given profession is astonishingly low. But every once in a while, there comes a young individual along who grows into the talent of the century. These are the remarkable athletes that stand apart from the rest. These are the true champions that define an entire century within their area. It’s not unusual that they manage to break a vast number of records and by doing so become immortal legends. Let’s have a look at some of the most inspirational sports quotes from the champions that made history. (Be sure not to miss our collections on baseball quotes, soccer quotes, and basketball quotes).
Sporting arenas are the places where modern heroes are born. Their accomplishments in these arenas are broadcast to millions of people all around the world. It is, therefore, no surprise that the heroic deeds of the sports stars have inspired and motivated entire generations.
“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
Michael jordan
The true questions, however, are: What has motivated these exceptional champions throughout their active carriers? What has inspired them to peak performance routinely?
Enjoy these brilliantly motivational sports quotes.One may also wonder where these athletes took the mental and physical strength to overcome severe injuries or setbacks.
Learning from the best sportsmen in their field can help you tremendously. The benefits of reading to thoughts and ideas of true sports champions are manifold. For one, it will help you to quickly develop a better feeling of their habits and attitudes. The same time, reading a carefully selected collection of inspirational sports quotes helps you to quickly get motivated. No matter if you need a quick motivational boost or the necessary strength to overcome obstacles – the following quotes will help you to quickly turn things around.
“Winners never quit and quitters never win.”
Vince Lombardi
“Gold medals aren’t really made of gold. They’re made of sweat, determination, and a hard-to-find alloy called guts.”
Dan Gable
“Persistence can change failure into extraordinary achievement.”
Matt Biondi
“It’s not whether you get knocked down; it’s whether you get up.”
Vince Lombardi
“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”
Wayne Gretzky
“Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger
“If you come in second, you’re just the first loser!”
Tiger Woods
“A champion is someone who gets up when he can’t.”
Jack Dempsey
“Nobody who ever gave his best regretted it.”
George Halas
“The harder the battle, the sweeter the victory.”
Les Brown
“I’m playing; I’m here. I’m going to fight until they tell me they don’t want me anymore.”
Steve Nash
“You’re never a loser until you quit trying.”
Mike Ditka
“Winning is a habit. Unfortunately so is losing.”
Vince Lombardi
“If you aren’t going all the way, why go at all?”
Joe Namath
“Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.”
Tim Notke
“If you can believe it, the mind can achieve it.”
Ronnie Lott
“I’ve never lost a game I just ran out of time.”
Michael Jordan
“If you don´t fall, how are you going to know what getting up feels like?”
Stephen Curry
“It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up.”
Babe Ruth
“Somebody may beat me, but they are going to have to bleed to do it.”
Steve Prefontaine
“Adversity causes some men to break; others to break records. ”
William Arthur Ward
“Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.”
Babe Ruth
“To give any less than your best is to sacrifice a gift.”
Steve Prefontaine
“Running isn’t a sport for pretty boys… It’s about the sweat in your hair and the blisters on your feet. It’s about getting out the door and running when the rest of the world is only dreaming about having the passion that you need to live each and every day with. It’s about being on a lonely road and running like a champion even when there’s not a single soul in sight to cheer you on. Running is all about having the desire to train and persevere until every fiber in your legs, mind, and heart is turned to steel. And when you’ve finally forged hard enough, you will have become the best runner you can be.”
Paul Maurer
“The finest of athletes have, along with skill, a few more essential qualities: to conduct their life with dignity, with integrity, with courage and modesty. All these, are totally compatible with pride, ambition, determination, and competitiveness”
Donald Bradman
“I’ve learned that something constructive comes from every defeat.”
Tom Landry
“Winning isn’t everything but wanting to win is.”
Vince Lombardi
“Without self-discipline, success is impossible, period.”
Lou Holtz
“In some sports, you can just get by on a lot of natural talent. In swimming, it helps to be long and lean, but you can’t be good at it without putting in the work. There is a direct connection between what you put into it and what you get out of it.”
Michael Phelps
“It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it’s the pebble in your shoe.”
Muhammad Ali
“It ain’t over ’til it’s over.”
Yogi Berra
“A lot of football success is in the mind. you must believe you are the best and then make sure that you are.”
Bill Shankly
“Sports do not build character. They reveal it.”
Heywood Broun
“There is about world-class athletes carving out exemptions from physical laws a transcendent beauty that makes manifest God in man.”
David Foster Wallace
“Champions keep playing until they get it right.”
Billie Jean King
“Make each day your masterpiece.”
John Wooden
“Run when you can, walk if you have to, crawl if you must; just never give up.”
Dean Karnazes
“Approach the game with no preset agendas and you’ll probably come away surprised at your overall efforts. „
Phil Jackson
“If you are afraid of failure you don’t deserve to be successful!”
Charles Barkley
“You can’t put a limit on anything. The more you dream, the farther you get.”
Michael Phelps
“Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they’ve got a second.”
William James
“Greatness, whether athletic or otherwise, doesn’t come from those content on just being but from those who seek to be the difference.”
Kirk Mango
“Do not let what you can not do interfere with what you can do.”
John Wooden
“There may be people that have more talent than you, but there’s no excuse for anyone to work harder than you do.”
Derek Jeter
“If you can’t outplay them, outwork them.”
Ben Hogan
“The more difficult the victory, the greater the happiness in winning.”
Pele
“I became a good pitcher when I stopped trying to make them miss the ball and started trying to make them hit it.”
Sandy Koufax
“The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.”
Phil Jackson
“Winning is not a sometime thing, it is an all the time thing. You don’t do things right once in a while. You do them right all the time. „
Vince Lombardi
“God made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure. „
Eric Liddell
“Football is like life – it requires perserverance, self-denial, hard work, sacrifice, dedication and respect for authority.”
Vince Lombardi
“People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can’t find them, make them.”
Kirk Mango
“Always make a total effort, even when the odds are against you.”
Arnold Palmer
“A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be.”
Wayne Gretzky
“In the dust of defeat as well as the laurels of victory there is a glory to be found if one has done his best.”
Eric Liddell
“Never underestimate the heart of a champion!”
Doc Rivers
“There’s something about putting on a pair of skates, and getting out there and moving like nobody else can. Freedom is a word that comes to mind.”
Randy Gardner
“Many people say I’m the best women’s soccer player in the world. I don’t think so. And because of that, someday I just might be.”
Mia Hamm
“Life isn’t about how comfortable I can be it is about learning how to get comfortable with being uncomfortable”
Heather Gillis
“Do you know what my favorite part of the game is? The opportunity to play.”
Mike Singletary
“Never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game”
Babe Ruth
“It’s not the will to win that matters — everyone has that. It’s the will to prepare to win that matters.”
Paul Bryant
“The strong one doesn’t win, the one that wins is strong.”
Franz beckenbauer
“Everyone has the fire, but the champions know when to ignite the spark.”
Amit Ray
“When you’ve got something to prove, there’s nothing greater than a challenge.”
Terry Bradshaw
“You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.”
Michael Jordan
“Never say never because limits, like fears, are often just an illusion.”
Michael Jordan
“You have to give 100 percent in the first half of the game. If that isn’t enough, in the second half, you have to give what’s left.”
Yogi Berra
“In baseball and in business, there are three types of people. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen, and those who wonder what happened.”
Tommy Lasorda
“I haven’t celebrated coming in No. 2 too many times.”
Mark Messier
“One man practicing sportsmanship is far better than a hundred teaching it.”
Knute Rockne
“Who you are tomorrow begins with what you do today.”
Tim Fargo
“I never worry about the problem. I worry about the solution.”
Shaquille O’Neal
“You don’t just want to beat a team. You want to leave a lasting impression in their minds so they never want to see your face again.”
Mia Hamm
“What we glean from watching or actively participating in sporting contests is the sense of commitment needed to succeed and the diverse paths that lead to failure.”
Kilroy J. Oldster
“We can choose to accept the fact that a challenge may be quite impossible, or we can choose to challenge the impossible.”
Andre Bramble
“He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.”
Muhammad Ali
“A trophy carries dust. Memories last forever.”
Mary Lou Retton
“Success is where preparation and opportunity meet.”
Bobby Unser
“Most people who do a lot of exercise, particularly in the form of competitive athletics, have unneurotic, extraverted, optimistic personalities to begin with.”
Robert M. Sapolsky
“The idea here is simple, if you can dream it, it is possible.”
Ernest Riveras Tobia
“Baseball is the only field of endeavor where a man can succeed three times out of ten and be considered a good performer. „
Ted Williams
“They say that nobody is perfect. Then they tell you practice makes perfect. I wish they’d make up their minds.”
Wilt Chamberlain
“If a team wants to intimidate you physically and you let them, they’ve won.”
Mia Hamm
“It is in experiencing and accepting the pain of defeat, that we may truly acknowledge the joy of victory.”
Andre Bramble
“The miracle isn’t that I finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to start.”
John Bingham
“If a tie is like kissing your sister, losing is like kissing your grandmother with her teeth out.”
George Brett
“Sports are only sports until someone who doesn’t give a damn about sports has something to gain from them, then sports suddenly become economics.”
Fredrik Backman
“I love the suffering that goes into the sport, to become the best.”
Tj Eisenhart
“Every name looks fashionable when it’s etched in silver. (Stanley Cup)”
Bruce Boudreau
“I’ll play baseball for the Army or fight for it, whatever they want me to do.”
Mickey Mantle
“Sports benefit the spectators the least.”
Mokokoma Mokhonoana
“Fans don’t boo nobodies. „
Reggie Jackson
“The greatest skill the best athletes in the world possess is their ability to listen.”
Emma Chase
“Baseball is drama with an endless run and an ever-changing cast.”
Joe Garagiola
“Sqauash is the only gane where you call your ‘opponent’ a ‘partner’, and both of you play on the same side!”
Sandeep Sahajpal
“Sports creates complicated men, proud enough to refuse to admit their mistakes, but humble enough always to put their team first.”
Fredrik Backman
“In sports, it is not the strongest, who wins, but the most practical and skillful”
Sunday Adelaja
“Baseball is almost the only orderly thing in a very unorderly world. If you get three strikes, even the best lawyer in the world can’t get you off. „
Bill Veeck
“I never smile when I have a bat in my hands. That’s when you’ve got to be serious. When I get out on the field, nothing’s a joke to me. I don’t feel like I should walk around with a smile on my face.”
Hank Aaron
“Baseball is a public trust. Players turn over, owners turn over and certain commissioners turn over. But baseball goes on. „
Peter Ueberroth
“He’s probably the only player who doesn’t play for 10 months and, if he scores a hat trick in his first game back, no one would be surprised.”
Ryan Whitney
“Tennis taught me to take chances, to take life as it comes. To hit every ball that comes to me no matter how hard it looks, to give it my best shot.”
Thisuri Wanniarachchi
“In sport the mind serves as the acolyte and apprentice of the body. Nothing interferes with the flow of the game more than the athlete who obsesses about his every move on the court. You move, you react, you recover, you drive, and the thinking is seamless and invisible in the secret codes of your game.”
Pat Conroy
“Scores give better decision than judges.”
Amit Kalantri
“Somewhere behind the athlete you’ve become and the hours of practice and the coaches who have pushed you is a little girl who fell in love with the game and never looked back… play for her.”
Mia Hamm
“Sports teach us the value of facing yourself and others honestly. You can only grow if you let go of denial and embrace what is real and true.”
Corey Irwin
“Many think that the mark of a great champion is the nature and margin of their victories and the peaks they scale and reach. That’s only part of it. The mark of the greatest of champions is how they react and respond to defeat. That is when they become enshrined in our hearts and minds
as they rise again and into the immortal pages of history.”
Rasheed Ogunlaru
“To the athlete, all things are forgiven”
Alec Waugh
“Tomorrow I will run more courageously,
more outrageously.”
Talismanist Giebra
“I love Boxing; Rocky was created as a tribute to all boxing legends and for all athletes who are trying to get on track once again after getting knocked down in life and for me too …I love it more than any one will ever do ….love and respect”
Sami Abouzid
“Defeated misery is what all sport is about, eventually, if you follow the story for long enough; all sportsmen know this.”
Nick Hornby
“Soccer forces life to move on. There’s always a new match. A new season. There’s always a dream that everything can get better. It’s a game of wonders.”
Fredrik Backman
“I have no sense of humor about losing”
Rafael Nadal
“There is no ‘i’ in team.”
T. Jay Taylor
I hope you enjoyed this collection of exceptionally inspirational sports quotes. What is your favorite sport and why?
Stay victorious!
More and more, our society views winning as something more important than the game itself. Success in competition brings status, popularity and fame, not to mention college scholarships. Today's athletes are looking for an advantage over the competition that will help make them winners. Unfortunately, the adolescents of today are caught up in this high stakes competition frenzy. Because of this reality, teenage use of performance enhancing drugs is growing evermore popular.
Performance enhancing drugs can be regarded in four classes: androstenedione, creatine, anabolic steroids, and ephedra alkaloids. All of these drugs are available over the counter with the exception of the anabolic steroid class. Since 1994, these nutritional supplements are no longer controlled by the FDA. As a result, there is no control over their purity, efficacy, or distribution. In fact, most of these substances market themselves to the general public as 'safe' and 'natural.'
Androstendedione (Andro) and its derivatives DHEA and 19-nortesterone are prohormones that convert in the liver to testosterone, and come in pill form. It is uncertain the amount of adolescent usage of these drugs, but most studies are quoting in the range of 2.5-5% adolescent usage. A few years ago, Andro was brought to the forefront when Mark McGwire broke the single season homerun record while using this supplement. Initial studies indicated that these drugs did not raise serum testosterone levels, but newer studies are noting that they do in fact produce that effect if taken in higher doses. Data is also present to indicate that serum levels of estrogens also increase with Andro.
Adverse effects include irreversible gynocomastia - the premature closure of growth plates - acne, hair loss, testicular atrophy and changes in personality, including aggressive behaviors. These behaviors can include 'steroid rage' or 'roid rage,' an inappropriate intense anger response. Besides the abuse of this class of drugs, there is no reason to believe that addiction is not a possibility with certain types and amounts of dosages. From a legal perspective, all of these drugs in this class are readily available in nutritional supplement stores. Adolescent athletes have no trouble attaining these drugs. However, several governing bodies in the world of sports have banned their usage. These include the IOC (International Olympic Committee), NCAA, NFL, and NCAA.
Creatine, a protein, is a very popular nutritional supplement sold as fine white powder. It is important not to confuse this chemical with creatinine. This protein is synthesized in the liver at a rate of 1-2 grams per day. Creatine is also found in red meats and in some fish. Most individuals need about 2 grams per day. In our skeletal muscle, creatine plays an important role in the production of ATP. The goal of this nutritional supplement is to provide the muscles with large stores of creatine for maximal exertion. Far and away, creatine is the most commonly used nutritional supplement among high school athletes with usage around 10% of adolescent athletes. Most athletes believe it increases their performance and decreases soreness after strenuous workouts.
Adverse effects include weight gain secondary to water retention. GI distress is not uncommon. Increased cases of muscle tears upon maximal exertion have also been noted. The most concerning adverse effect is renal. Because creatine is a protein, it is known to raise serum levels of creatinine. The long-term effects of this response have not been studied in detail, but there certainly is the possibility of renal dysfunction. At a minimum, the athlete on this supplement needs to be well-hydrated.
The androstenedione class of prohormones and creatine need to be studied further. Despite some earlier study data, these classes of supplements will more likely be determined to be even more dangerous and usage by adolescent athletes should be strongly discouraged. In that the Andro class of drugs converts to testosterone in the liver, we have no reason to believe they are any safer than their predecessor, anabolic steroids.
Consult your primary care physician for more serious injuries that do not respond to basic first aid. As an added resource, the staff at Nationwide Children’s Hospital Sports Medicine is available to diagnose and treat sports-related injuries for youth or adolescent athletes. Services are now available in five locations. To make an appointment, call (614) 355-6000 or request an appointment online.