You see a hockey player, you'd never know he's a professional athlete. But you put the skates on him, and he becomes a beast. — Junior Seau
I’m a professional athlete, I’m a businesswoman and I know who I am. — Joanna Jedrzejczyk
To be a top-class athlete, you have to train hard, you have to eat right, you have to get enough rest. I feel the way golf is going nowadays, you have to treat yourself as an athlete. — Rory McIlroy
Professional sports are something they can't control. — Troy Vincent
Everyone is an athlete. The only difference is that some of us are in training, and some are not. — George A. Sheehan
Meeting sports athletes that are the best in the world is a thrill to this day. — Phil Knight
A helluva athlete, the best ever to play his position in the history of the game. — Al Davis
I'm a working mom, not a professional athlete, but I am a runner and that's a special club. — Alison Sweeney
Right now, I am a football player and I will sacrifice whatever is necessary to be the best. — J. J. Watt
Sport must be amateur or it is not sport. Sports played professionally are entertainment. — Avery Brundage
Some of today's athletes do not have that kind of pride. They left school at 16, have never had a job in their life and are getting Lottery funding, earning money as an athlete. — Linford Christie
I'm not like a full athlete. But I'm definitely a boxer. — Logan Paul
Durability is part of what makes a great athlete. — Bill Russell
I'm a firm believer in... just because these guys are professional athletes or whatever, everybody's going to have an opinion on something, and not everybody's going to get along. I've had my words with fans on Twitter too. — Dana White
Several professional athletes have wrongly taught many young Americans by example that the only way to succeed in sports is to take steroids. — Jim Sensenbrenner
I would advise all youths aspiring to athletic fame or a professional career to practice clean living, fair play and good sportsmanship. — Major Taylor
Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist
I don't believe professional athletes should be role models. I believe parents should be role models. — Charles Barkley
The United States has become a place where entertainers and professional athletes are mistaken for people of importance. — Robert A. Heinlein
If you're looking to be a professional athlete on the top tier of any sport, my best advice is to put everything you have into it. If you're not, somebody else is. It's got to be all or nothing. — Dominick Cruz
Learn the rules like a pro so you can break them like an artist.
I think sports for kids is the greatest thing in the world because it teaches you how to share, about winning and losing and pressure. But I don't think you should force your kid to become a professional athlete. — Wayne Gretzky
A good professional athlete must have the love of a little boy. And the good players feel the kind of love for the game that they did when they were Little Leaguers. — Tom Seaver
The left's obsession with the high incomes of corporate executives never seems to extend to equally high - or higher - incomes of professional athletes, entertainers, or best-selling authors like Danielle Steel. — Thomas Sowell
Once you become a professional athlete or once you do anything well, then you're automatically a role model ... I have no problem being a role model. I love it. I have kids looking up to me and hopefully I inspire these kids to do good things. — LeBron James
Athlete Quotes
Good athletes do not know what tiredness is. They do not know what discouragement is. Good athletes only know what victory is. — Fidel Castro
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
Win or lose you will never regret working hard, making sacrifices, being disciplined or focusing too much. Success is measured by what we have done to prepare for competition. — John Smith
You have to believe in yourself when no one else does. — Serena Williams
Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. — Muhammad Ali
The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team. — Phil Jackson
Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like artist.
A clean, hard-fought wrestling match is the most honest of athletic contests. There is no technological interventions, no teammates to blame, no panel of judges to bias the score. In wrestling, you compete or you quit. No alibis. I like that — Dan Gable
The prayer offered to God in the morning during your quiet time is the key that unlocks the door of the day. Any athlete knows that it is the start that ensures a good finish. — Adrian Rogers
God made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure. — Eric Liddell
Champions aren't made in the gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them-a desire, a dream, a vision. — Muhammad Ali
Professional Sports Quotes
Just when you think you know the answers, I change the questions. — Roddy Piper
There is no mat space for malcontents or dissenters. One must neither celebrate insanely when he wins, nor sulk when he loses. He accepts victory professionally, humbly; he hates defeat, but makes no poor display of it. — Dan Gable
I think it's my personality to overcome things, learn from them and become stronger, both personally and professionally. To be honest, I welcome those hardships. — Hope Solo
I strongly believe the black culture spends too much time, energy and effort raising, praising, and teasing our black children about the dubious glories of professional sports. — Arthur Ashe
I think the industry brings out probably the best individuals in the sport that can encourage and motivate people to be all they can be. — Martyn Ford
I think professional sports, football, to use it as an example, it's fundamentally a form of entertainment. — Gregg Easterbrook
Being a professional is doing the things you love to do, on the days you don't feel like doing them. — Julius Erving
Until my senior year, baseball and basketball were my best sports; and even when I was a senior, I still wanted to play baseball professionally. But the family wanted me to go to college and I guess I agreed with them or else I would have accepted some of the offers I got. — Joe Namath
I think it's the real world. The people we're writing about in professional sports, they're suffering and living and dying and loving and trying to make their way through life just as the brick layers and politicians are. — Red Smith
Golf is the only sport that a professional can enjoy playing with his friends. — Chi Chi Rodriguez
Student Athlete Quotes
I could have skated by as an athlete, but the world is so much bigger and more interesting than any one thing. I didn't want to be pigeonholed as just a jock. I'm also an author, a student of history, and I collect memorabilia from the Wild West. I'm also a son, a father, and a friend. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
I talk to student-athletes. I try to get them to remember that they're not just athletes, but student-athletes. You need to get an education, keep your hands clean and try to represent the university. — Earl Campbell
Universities exist to transmit knowledge and understanding of ideas and values to students not to provide entertainment for spectators or employment for athletes. — Milton Friedman
In every school, more boys wanted to be remembered as a star athlete than as a brilliant student. — James S. Coleman
I find that the three major administrative problems on a campus are sex for the students, athletics for the alumni and parking for the faculty. — Clark Kerr
A jazz musician is a combination orator, dialectician, mathematician, athlete, entertainer, poet, singer, dancer, diplomat, educator, student, comedian, artist, seducer, public masturbator, and general all-round good fellow. — Steve Lacy
By taking a business-like approach, the student-athletes and their parents will be in control of the outcome and that's how it should be. — Billy Kennedy
My life has been centered around sports. It is where I have met my closest friends and shaped the values that have made me a successful athlete, student and role model for young people. — Jennie Finch
Drawing on impressive achievements in academics and athletics as well as his own personal disappointments and challenges, Jordan provides students with a unique opportunity to discover the magnitude of their own potential. — Hyrum W. Smith
While most students were trying to draw one beautiful finished piece, I would be in the background drawing dozens of studies at different angles to use later. — Fred Perry
Olympic Athlete Quotes
After I came home from the 1936 Olympics with my four medals, it became increasingly apparent that everyone was going to slap me on the back, want to shake my hand or have me up to their suite. But no one was going to offer me a job. — Jesse Owens
I wanted no part of politics. And I wasn't in Berlin to compete against any one athlete. The purpose of the Olympics, anyway, was to do your best. As I'd learned long ago from Charles Riley, the only victory that counts is the one over yourself. — Jesse Owens
The potential for greatness lives within us all. — Wilma Rudolph
The U.S. Olympic spirit award is an award that is given to an athlete who embodies the Olympic spirit in more ways than just on the playing field, in showing incredible perseverance, in overcoming obstacles, and what we wanted to do is have everybody can vote on-line. — Brian Boitano
Each of us has a fire in our hearts for something. It's our goal in life to find it and keep it. — Mary Lou Retton
Nothing can substitute for just plain hard work — Andre Agassi
It's all about the journey, not the outcome. — Carl Lewis
If you dream and you allow yourself to dream you can do anything. — Clara Hughes
I still can't believe I'm an Olympic athlete. — Shawn Johnson
Female success stories from sporting events like the Olympic Games have played a role in shifting the Indian perception to see the female athlete as a hero and a role model for young Indian girls. — Richard Attias
Female Athlete Quotes
Remember the saying, What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger? It's true! — Paulo Coelho
I guess from my perspective being a female athlete as well, there’s probably not a huge amount of female athlete books out there. — Ellyse Perry
The female body is a masterpiece. Everyone likes to look at the female body, especially in dynamic, athletic sport. — Natalie Cook
I had female role models to look up to starting in middle school, athletes like Julie Foudy and Mia Hamm who made me realize that there was room in the world of sports for women. They ignited my dream of becoming an Olympic athlete. — Jennie Finch
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Hunger feeds the need to succeed. — Steve Kaufman
If 'what doesn't kill you makes you stronger,' how do you explain zombies? — Bob Saget
I'm sick of the media making female sports athletes into supermodels, when they're clearly sixes at best. — Daniel Tosh
Training of female athletes is so new that the limits of female possibility are still unknown. — Katherine Dunn
Athlete Motivational Quotes
When I'd get tired and want to stop, I'd wonder what my next opponent was doing. I'd wonder if he was still working out. I'd tried to visualize him. When I could see him working, I'd start pushing myself. When I could see him in the shower, I'd push myself harder. — Dan Gable
It's not the will to win that matters-everyone has that. It's the will to prepare to win that matters. — Bear Bryant
The team with the best athletes doesn't usually win. It's the team with the athletes who play best together. — Lisa Fernandez
Talent is never enough. With few exceptions the best players are the hardest workers. — Magic Johnson
When you fall, get right back up. Just keep going, keep pushing it. — Lindsey Vonn
Most people give up just when they're about to achieve success. — Ross Perot
You can motivate by fear, and you can motivate by reward. But both those methods are only temporary. The only lasting thing is self motivation. — Homer Rice
Natural talent only determines the limits of your athletic potential. It's dedication and a willingness to discipline your life that makes you great. — Billie Jean King
Wisdom is always an overmatch for strength. — Phil Jackson
What to do with a mistake: recognize it, admit it, learn from it, forget it. — Dean Smith
Good Athlete Quotes
Being pretty good at everything is more important than excelling in one pursuit. Be an athlete of life. — Peter Attia
You may have read that humans are the best endurance athletes. It's not true. We're only good in the heat, thanks to how we cool ourselves. Sled dogs are—by far—the greatest endurance athletes in the mammal kingdom. And their stats are insane. — Michael Easter
Nothing good comes in life or athletics unless a lot of hard work has preceded the effort. Only temporary success is achieved by taking short cuts. — Roger Staubach
The country is full of good coaches. What it takes to win is a bunch of interested players. — Don Coryell
Several of my critics have said, 'Bowerman just tacks up a piece of paper in the locker room and turns his runners loose.' They're partially right. I do give the athletes a relatively free rein and for good reason. One of my principles is? 'Don't overcoach.' — Bill Bowerman
Before I go out on the field every day, I tell myself, 'You are having fun, and you want to set a good example to those who are watching. — Cory Snyder
One of the great lessons I've learned in athletics is that you've got to discipline your life. No matter how good you may be, you've got to be willing to cut out of your life those things that keep you from going to the top. — Bob Richards
I love watching a good horse do what he's bred to do - I guess that's what I like the most about it. And I love to see good athletes do what they're bred to do. — Wilford Brimley
Everything good in life requires good sleep: good relationships, good mood, good athletic or academic performance, good mental health…I’d go so far as to say that good sleep is the foundation for getting anything you want in life. — Mark Burhenne
I later discovered that in order to be a good athlete one must care intensely what is happening with a ball, even if one doesn't have possession of it. This was ultimately my failure: my inability to work up a passion for the location of balls. — Haven Kimmel
Elite Athletes Quotes
We need to educate our elite coaches more and have a better approach to teaching the athletes about how to be healthy rather than berate them, humiliate them, use tactics that could scar them for life. — Dominique Moceanu
I'm never satisfied, I always want to do better. That's how it is to be an elite athlete, you're never happy. When you start getting happy and you start feeling satisfied, you're done. — Alexander Gustafsson
When you reach that elite level, 90 percent is mental and 10 percent is physical. You are competing against yourself. Not against the other athlete. — Dick Fosbury
Endure, put up with whatever comes your way, learn to overcome weakness and pain, push yourself to breaking point but never cave in. If you don't learn that lesson, you'll never succeed as an elite athlete. — Toni Nadal
Every athlete has doubts. Elite runners in particular are insecure people. You need someone to affirm that what you are doing is right. — Lynn Jennings
By being an elite athlete a lot of people think that you can go away or go places and get away with things. I'm more of the laid-back person. I don't have to go and skip the line. I don't have a problem waiting. — Andre Johnson
Elite athletes learn entitlement. They believe they are entitled to have women serve their needs. It's part of being a man. It's the cultural construction of masculinity. — Jackson Katz
When you're an elite athlete, it's a very special moment in time and you don't want it to end. — Steve Young
Professional football's a tough game. It's a lot of contact. It's a lot of wear and tear on your body. You've got elite athletes running into each other, play after play, at high speeds. And this is something that I love and I enjoy. — John Urschel
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 — Leisel Jones
Pro Football Quotes
Sure, luck means a lot in football. Not having a good quarterback is bad luck. — Don Shula
I had pro offers from the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers, who were pretty hard up for linemen in those days. If I had gone into professional football the name Jerry Ford might have been a household word today. — Gerald R. Ford
I want to be remembered as the guy who gave his all whenever he was on the field. — Walter Payton
Without a doubt in my mind, I should be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. You look at my stats without my USFL stats, and I don't know how you can argue with that. Look at my combined yards. I'm not one to make excuses, so I'll play by their rules and not even count the USFL stats. — Herschel Walker
Some of the money going to the rookies can now be spent on people who have proved their worth. After all, the average playing life of a pro football player is about eight years and it is only fitting that the veterans get something for their efforts. — Bob Lilly
Maybe a good rule in life is never become too important to do your own laundry. — Barry Sanders
Football is an honest game. It's true to life. It's a game about sharing. Football is a team game. So is life. — Joe Namath
Men, I want you just thinking of one word all season. One word and one word only: Super Bowl. — Bill Peterson
Positive thinking is the key to success in business, education, pro football, anything that you can mention. I go out there thinking that I'm going to complete every pass. — Ron Jaworski
If you're mad at your kid, you can either raise him to be a nose tackle or send him out to play on the freeway. It's about the same. — Bob Golic
People are always asking me about the secrets and tricks I use to get results. Sorry if this disappoints you: There are no secrets. There are no tricks. If anything, it’s the opposite: Whether you’re a pro athlete or a guy running a business or driving a truck or going to school, it’s simple. Ask yourself where you are now, and where you want to be instead. Ask yourself what you’re willing to do to get there. Then make a plan to get there. Act on it. There are no shortcuts. — Tim Grover
People complain that pro athletes make a lot of money; but what they don't understand is that we need a lot of money because we spend a lot of money. — Patrick Ewing
Stop saying athletes do it for the love of the game. They do it for the love of their 32-room mansion with the live shark tank in the living room. If pro sports paid minimum wage, Shaquille O'Neal would be a bouncer at Scores, and Anna Kournikova would be a mail-order bride from Minsk. — Bill Maher
He hasn't shown me anything but how he carries himself as a professional man, husband, father and athlete. Tom Brady is a pro's pro. I love the man and everything he's accomplished. — Randy Moss
"I've always been a proponent of "if you're going to do something, do it right." I applied that across all aspects of my shooting - planning, setting up shoots, getting up early, working with athletes and models, working with clients etc. Just being a pro about it. — Jimmy Chin
Do I midnight snack? Not a lot, but sometimes. And it's usually Doritos Cooler Ranch. I know that's terrible, especially for a pro athlete, but they're just so good. — Clint Mathis
The pro athlete is a sad tale. He signs a big contract and thinks he's set for life. I didn't think I was set for life, and I don't now. As athletes, we are important, celebrities, in demand and rich. Then we are out of the game and we are not important, not celebrities, not in demand and not rich. — Fran Tarkenton
Hip-hop and being a pro athlete go hand in hand. When they come together, it's a win, not just for your business brand but also for culture. — Kendrick Lamar
In college I never realized the opportunities available to a pro athlete. I've been given the chance to meet all kinds of people, to travel and expand my financial capabilities, to get ideas and learn about life, to create a world apart from basketball. — Michael Jordan
A sportswriter's life means never sitting with your wife or family at the games. Still working after everyone has gone to the party... Digging beneath a coach's lies, not to forget those of athletic directors and general managers and owners of pro teams. Keeping a confidence. Risking it. — Dan Jenkins
The principle is competing against yourself. — Steve Young
When should a college athlete turn pro? Not until he has earned all he can in college as an amateur. — Will Rogers
Forty years ago the chances of journalists reporting - or the authorities even prosecuting - a pro athlete were practically nil. — Leigh Steinberg
I train like a pro-athlete, not like an actor who's just trying to look pretty. — Joe Manganiello
Distance running to a professional athlete in my day was five laps around the field. And you stopped each lap to take your pulse. — Lynn Swann
Jeremy Lin is the only Asian American in the NBA today and one of the few in any professional U.S. sport. His arrival is surely leading other talented Asian American athletes this week to contemplate a pro career. — Eric Liu
I wasn't the athletic kid in my family. Both of my brothers were on athletic scholarships and my dad played semi-pro hockey. My younger brother played pro hockey. I was the music kid. But I always loved sports. I grew up around it. — Trevor McNevan
Every action has a consequence. It may be good for strengthening. And I have no doubt that lifting a lot of weights can get you stronger. I just don't know if lifting stronger weights can keep you healthy, or it can keep you doing your job better, especially for a pro athlete. — Tom Brady
I feel like every woman, and actually any guy who hasn't played that many sports, you secretly wonder, like, 'Would I be a pro athlete?' — Emily Ratajkowski
So many people get caught up in being a pro athlete and think they are better. I don't feel like I've ever changed or acted any differently because of the situation I'm in or that status I have. — Carson Palmer
I think pro-athletes should be forced to use steroids. I think we as fans deserve the greatest athletes science can create! Lets go! Anything that will make you run faster, jump higher! I have High-Definition TV! I want my athletes like my video games! Lets go! I could care less if you die at 40. You hate life after sports anyways. I'm doing you a favor. — Daniel Tosh
There's lots of people my age (and younger) that have grown up in chaotic environments and I just happen to be one of the first ones to make it to pro sports. It's more a societal thing than an athletics thing. — Chris Kluwe
When we get to the point where a gay pro athlete is no longer forced to live in fear that he'll be shunned by teammates or outed by tabloids, when we get to the point where he plays while his significant other waits in the family room, when we get to the point where he's not compelled to hide his true self and is able to live an authentic life, then coming out won't be such a big deal. But we're not there yet. — Jason Collins
I think there's nothing sadder than a pro athlete who plays past his prime. — Lynn Samuels
At one point that's all I cared about, being a pro athlete. But I realized I wasn't athletic enough. — Josh Duhamel
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