Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Just being here at the Olympics is pretty incredible in itself. Seeing the unity of the athletes and to see how everyone has worked so hard to get here - and we are all so excited to be here - it's awesome to be able to experience it.
I am convening the African Leaders Forum on Disability in partnership with Special Olympics so that a marginalized population long unrecognized does not remain in the shadows. I consider this a critical, moral and practical challenge.
The Chicago Special Olympics prove a very fundamental fact, the fact that exceptional children - children with mental retardation - can be exceptional athletes, the fact that through sports they can realize their potential for growth.
I come from the ghetto in Brazil, where we don't have a lot of career opportunities, so I'm sure my family and people who live there never imagined that one day I'd become a singer and be able to perform at an event like the Olympics.
The Olympics is a once-in-a-lifetime thing. I was lucky enough to go twice, but most people only get one chance. And in judo you can train your whole life and it'll come down to a split second: You can lose everything or win anything.
We come from a rich history of amazing sports and athletes here in Canada and there's been a long legacy before us that helped pave the way. And that's why I grew up believing I could go to the Olympics and stand on the podium one day.
I've noticed that a lot of people, subsequently, when they introduce me are very careful not to say the Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt. A lot more people are saying Jeremy Hunt, Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport.
The Olympics are just different. I'm not sure why; the pipe's the same size, the board you're riding is the same, you're competing against pretty much the same people. But the Olympics is the Olympics, and I know it's a really big deal.
I grew up snowboarding in two of the best states for the sport: Colorado and Utah. The world-class ski mountains in these neighboring states were key factors that allowed me to represent our country in two Olympics and numerous X Games.
My all-time favourite political promise - more a boast than a promise, really - came from former Montreal mayor Jean Drapeau, who said in the lead-up to the 1976 Olympics, 'The Olympics can no more lose money than a man can have a baby.'
You dream about the Olympics for so long and you have that one day, then it's over, and when you don't run well there is this huge letdown. It took me years to deal with that. I feel like I almost had to cleanse myself of that experience.
You will be competing against athletes from many nations. But, most important, you are competing against yourself. All we expect is for you to do your very best, to push yourself just one second faster, one notch higher, one inch further.
Women's combat sports have been on a good run in the United States. Claressa Shields won a gold medal in women's boxing at the London Olympics in 2012, when it became a medal sport. American women won medals in taekwondo and judo as well.
The first event I vividly remember was competing at the Junior Olympics in Seattle, Washington. It was my first major competition outside of Texas, and I remember being very nervous. I could not control my nerves, and I threw a few fouls.
I missed the final of the World Championships in 2009, but I told the coach I would break the world record in 2010. Which I did. Then in 2011 I won the World Championships and now in 2012 it is the Olympics. That is how I have been working.
If the 1988 Seoul Olympics was 'reconciliation Olympics' amid the cold war between East and West and the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics was a touchstone of peace, the 2032 Olympics will be promoted to become the last stop to establish the peace.
Mary Peters. When I was having my sulky, stroppy, bad loser phase I watched her at the Olympics. Sometimes she failed but always with a smile and good grace. She taught me how to win and lose, and I have a photo taken with her in my lounge.
Nothing against the Olympics. I played in 2012 and it was an incredible experience. It's different for tennis players than for swimmers and track and field athletes. That's the pinnacle of their sport and not so much the pinnacle of tennis.
I think the Winter Olympics are definitely on a smaller scale than the summer games, but with the inclusion of cool new sports like slope style skiing and snowboarding, it is going to breathe new life into them and attract a whole new crowd.
In MMA it's a lot less intimidating because it's not like you get one shot at a title every four years. You get a title shot every couple of months... With the Olympics, you don't always have this, so there is so much more pressure involved.
I don't speak Spanish. I understand enough of it, having spent some time running Telemundo, and I put in a lot of time in Spain during the Barcelona Olympics. But I don't pretend to speak Spanish, and I don't want anyone to think that I can.
Some days I'll have good starts, and some days I'll have bad starts. I'm really focusing on having more good starts than bad starts, and I traditionally do. But I would hate to make it all the way to the Olympics and have a bad starting day.
Everything that happened in '92 was more than I had dreamed of... winning the U.S. title for the first time and then doing so well at the Olympics... It seemed to wrap things up so perfectly. I couldn't help thinking, 'How could I top that?'
If you look at the success of snowboarding in the Winter Games and how that's brought a more youthful edge to the Olympics in general, they don't have that with the Summer Games. They don't have anything that's drawing in a younger viewership.
When I was about 17 I was on the G.B. squad and that's where I wanted to be. I went to the Commonwealth Games and got silver there, but the three years I was on the team it was London-this, London-that. It was all preparation for the Olympics.
When that fire hit your ass, it will sober your ass up quick! I saw something, I went, Well, that's a pretty blue. You know what? That looks like... FIRE! Fire is inspirational. They should use it in the Olympics, because I ran the 100 in 4.3.
This is my 20th year in the sport. I've known swimming and that's it. I don't want to swim past age 30; if I continue after this Olympics, and come back in 2016, I'll be 31. I'm looking forward to being able to see the other side of the fence.
After the 2013 World Championships, I had three goals for the Olympics: to swim 3:56 or better in the 400-meter freestyle, break 8:05 in the 800, and win gold in the 200. I achieved all of those, and soon, it will be time to set some new goals.
To represent your country at a home Olympics is something special and I'm over the moon to be selected for Team GB. I was pleased to get the qualifying time in Berlin earlier this year and my sole focus is getting in the right shape for London.
I started working with Special Olympics when I was 17 years old. I'll never forget the first time I did it: I was at Weber State, and it was the summer before I started school. We have to get up in the morning and do this Special Olympics camp.
I am very optimistic, and I wish that God almighty grants me success to get a qualifying time. Only then can I go to the Olympics. If this happens I will be the first Palestinian athlete to gain a qualifying time. This will be a big achievement.
I didn't know about competition or the Olympics until Peggy Fleming won in 1968. My mother looked after all of the competition stuff. I just skated. I didn't really love competition, but that was the only way to get better. You'd see more talent.
I mean it's funny, playing music, how of course you want it to do well, you want them to like it, but it's not competitive like an election, it's the Olympics, it's not a Formula 1 race. The Billboard charts are just to show you what people like.
Any time you have an opportunity to do something for the first time, it's super exciting, and I just want to soak up everything, and each experience... just to say that you've represented your country at the Olympics, it's such a rare opportunity.
I'm all about leaving a legacy behind and trying to cement myself as one of the greats. I don't just want to be remembered as the guy who beat Michael Phelps at the 2012 London Olympics - a one-hit wonder - I want to be an inspiration to the kids.
In February 1991, I was rushed to the hospital in Los Angeles to have my feet amputated. Three years earlier, I had broken the national 100 meters hurdles record while a student at UCLA and was a favourite for the event at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
I have wrestled in almost every tournament in the world. I've won the Olympics, NCAAs, and World Championships, but none of those can truly compare to the feeling I felt when I won my first and only state championship my senior year of high school.
I was still young when I missed Beijing. I was favourite to win a medal but I knew I had time. My coach advised me to stay at school and finish my exams. Even if I had gone and won the Olympics, I might not have handled the pressure. So I moved on.
I am hugely honored to represent my country in the Olympics and in World Cups, and I'm grateful for all the advantages being a professional soccer player brings my way - the opportunities to see the world, the camaraderie and friendships, and more.
People used to call the Paralympics the 'Special Olympics.' These men and women are athletes. They are warriors. They are people who are not confined by what they have been given. It's amazing to see where, and how far, the human body can really go.
I didn't want people to think of me as someone who wasn't impressed with a silver medal, because obviously that's a huge accomplishment, and I was so happy. It was more about me just being not impressed with falling at the Olympics in my last event.
I have a scar on my left thigh, kind of almost near my knee. I essentially fell in the 2002 Olympics and when I hit the wall - because of the impact - my right leg kind of came in at like a knife-type angle and stabbed my leg with my own skate blade.
When I ran the anchor leg to a gold medal with my Canadian teammates Glenroy Gilbert, Bruny Surin, and Robert Esmie in the 4x100-metre relay at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, it was my responsibility to motivate the guys as unofficial captain and leader.
I'm going to always bleed the red, white, and blue. I represented the U.S. in the Olympics; I love my country. But the U.S. fans will love you on Monday; if you lose, they'll hate you on Tuesday. If you win, it will be back to loving you on Wednesday.
That's the neat thing about the Olympics - so many of these athletes, they don't make a ton of money, they train for four years to compete, and they realize, 'Look, this is a blessing that I have this chance to represent the United States of America.'
I always look back at when I didn't have a dream, when I didn't have a spirit. I didn't know what the Olympics was all about. I was just hanging out on the street. I was not humble. I was not a nice person, doing things that were socially unacceptable.
I'm a classically trained painter, and I was an illustrator in New York working with Fortune 500s companies as well as the NBA and the Olympics. I first got into sculpting when I created a sculpture based on a painting I had done for the 1984 Olympics.
London 2012 was the toughest time in our relationship but also the best. Things could get fractious - we were both competing for gold - but standing next to my brother on the start line for a home Olympics was so special. I remember saying: 'Let's go.'
One thing I've done in my life is train year-round to compete at anything, anything. I've got an invitation now to maybe be on the karate team for the Barcelona Olympics. I'm debating whether I want to do that. I just love to compete, and I want to win.
There is not much awareness about fitness in India, unlike other countries. We don't get too many medals at Olympics; one of the reasons is we don't have that culture of fitness in India. That is why we decided to start this chain of gyms under my name.