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" 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. "

Sebastian Coe

Jazz

Dice

Better

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

" 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. "

" During my first Olympics in 1980, at the age of 23, I was physically in great condition but mentally too inexperienced to cope comfortably in the pressure cooker of an Olympic year. "

" World records are only borrowed. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

Sebastian Coe

Champion

Great

" Some people found it difficult to understand my relationship with my father, but that may have been because they couldn't get beyond their relationship with their own parents. "

" 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 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. "

" I will go to my grave believing that participation is best driven by the well-stocked shop window. "

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

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

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

" The characteristic shared by people at the top of their profession is that, to get better, they crave criticism. Most people don't like criticism, but if you are trying to shave two tenths of a second at 800 metres, that is what you crave. "

" 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. "

" I don't want to go back into politics - absolutely not. "

Sebastian Coe

Want

Back

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

" 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. "

" 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. "

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

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

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

" I have always been very good at being able to structure my time. My mother had a huge influence on me. My dad was my coach. He was a hugely influential figure. "

" 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. "

" Nobody ever becomes an expert parent. But I think good parenting is about consistency. It's about being there at big moments, but it's also just the consistency of decision making. And it's routine. "

" 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. "

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

" 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. "

" 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. "

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