Get QuoteDark Inspirational Quotes App

" I joined the local athletics club when I was 12, that's what I did. I did it of my own volition. "

Related Quotes:

" I can be a bit impatient sometimes. If I'm really focusing on something, I can expect everybody to move at the same pace, and that's probably not massively endearing. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" I actually don't believe in big government, and half the time I'm never quite sure I believe in government, generally. "

" When I moved to Sheffield and went to a secondary modern in the Seventies, there were certain challenges: if you've got a name like Sebastian, you either learn to fight or to run. "

" I've never sent an email in my life. My kids laugh. I often hand the phone to them and say, 'Can you text this message to somebody.' I don't even have a computer on my desk. "

" 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. "

" We have to recognise there are very few countries you will take the Games to where somebody doesn't have issues on foreign or domestic policy. "

" 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. "

" I was ecstatic when we won - to host the Olympics is one of the biggest opportunities in living memory. It will help change the lives of young people and transform east London. "

" 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. "

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

" 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. "

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

" Sacrifice is going to war for your country. Sacrifice is a brave young man being blown up by a landmine in Afghanistan. "

" I do genuinely believe that young people who play sport at a competitive level, sensibly controlled, sensibly organised, that has to be a good thing. It will teach them to win, it will teach them to lose with dignity and magnanimity - all the things you want. It's a pretty good metaphor for life. "

" 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. "

" Interviewing Hugh McIlvanney, I got to read lots of his stuff again. I'm a big fan of his writing. "

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

" I started daily training at the age of 14. When I was 16 years old, I was running twice a day. "

" Vision is a romantic thing. We have got into 'talent identification'. I am much more interested in passion - finding people who are really excited about doing something. "

" 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. "

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

" Marathons don't come to you overnight. "

" The Olympics are a world apart from racing for a record. You put out of your mind pretty much what anyone else doing in the race. "

" 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 can remember the day I decided I would retire from competitive athletics as vividly as if it were yesterday. "

" Football was not what I was put on this planet to do. "

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

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