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" All pressure is self-inflicted. It's what you make of it or how you let it rub off on you. "

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" Getting the Games for London has been the fulfilment of a dream. It is one which I truly believe can change the lives of hundreds of thousands of young people for the better. But in the end, nothing can quite compare with winning your first Olympic gold medal. "

" Sport is a universal language, building more bridges between people than anything else I can think of. "

" There is nothing so marginal as a party that has been in power for 18 years and slides into opposition. You influence nothing. "

" I'm not sure there are enough coaches in the system that can take young talent and consistently get them into the top five in the world. "

" At university level, I had an economics lecturer who used to joke that I was the only student who handed in essays on British Airways notepaper. "

" I know many people who are actually queasy about the idea that their kids may harbour sporting ambitions. "

" Quite simply the Games are the biggest opportunity sport in this country has ever had. It is one that we must not squander. "

" I think I'm probably just an old-fashioned Tory. I don't wake up each morning trying to figure out what kind of Conservative I am; for me it's quite instinctive. "

" Inspirational leaders need to have a winning mentality in order to inspire respect. It is hard to trust in the leadership of someone who is half-hearted about their purpose, or only sporadic in focus or enthusiasm. "

" Everybody recognises that giving young people competitive outlet through sport is a very good thing. "

" Charlie Parker was a genius, as was Lester Young. "

" When the subsidies are going out there to fund arts, I'd like to see jazz given a better shake of the dice. It attracts as many people as opera does, but not the subsidies. "

" My overwhelming concern will always be the well-being of the athletes. In Olympic sport, it is rare for competitors not to devote half their young life to this. Their families will have given up all sorts of things to allow them to do that. "

" The biggest fragility in a project is often just the inability to be able to explain to people why you are doing it, and when you're going to do it, and what's going to happen. "

" I'm such an odd mix of things. My grandfather was Indian: I've got more family living in India than I do in the U.K. My old man was East London. I was brought up in Yorkshire. My great-grandfather was Irish. "

" I'm a Chelsea season-ticket holder, and I've supported them for 37 years, so any judgment of Manchester United by me is seen as biased. "

" I still run every other day. Longer at weekends. I probably do 35 miles a week. "

" I started track and field when I was 12 and didn't get to an Olympic Games until I was nearly 23. By any stretch of the imagination that's a very long apprenticeship. "

" In 1981, I spoke at the Olympic Congress. I was scandalised that I was the first athlete to be given that chance. But I made the most of it. "

" I don't think I am a workaholic. I prefer to keep busy. It is better than the alternative. "

" It is really important that we promote competitive support in schools. It is very important that we recognise that has to be underpinned by good quality physical education and by getting people into patterns of exercise. "

" The great thing about athletics is that it's like poker sometimes: you know what's in your hand, and it may be a load of rubbish, but you've got to keep up the front. "

" We need to be confident. We need not to blink. "

" Ask me what makes a champion runner, and I will tell you it helps to have the great good sense to choose your parents carefully. "

" My motivation to compete was always about improving one year to the next. At 34, I realised I'd never run any quicker, so why hang on? But I love running and still run along woodland trails and beaches every few days. "

" Since the break-up of the 1990s, Russia has not had winter sports facilities. All the winter sport venues were effectively located in countries that are no longer part of the federation. There is a strong argument for saying Sochi's legacy will be this country will have winter sports facilities it did not have before. "

" Good running is the ability to have a very well defined on-board computer. The ability to judge distances when running in traffic. "

" I had a very ordinary background in Sheffield; I went to a secondary modern, but I saw something on TV in 1968 that inspired me to join an athletics club, and 12 years later, with great coaching and the support of people who loved me a lot, I ended up at an Olympic Games. "

" I've always referred to my father as 'my coach' because we were always able to separate our relationship into the roles of coach and parent. "

" Our success in Singapore was a Herculean effort by the whole team. Now I am determined to deliver on all we promised. I will be watching like a hawk. "