Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I was focused on athletics, outdoors, sports.
I can't remember what times I used to do in training because I always loved football and didn't have any interest in an athletics career. But I was always the quickest.
Athletics set the right sentiment for a clean and believable sport.
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.
I want to spend as much time as I can with my kids, but I know the opportunities in athletics don't often come round, so I've just got to make the most of it.
I've always had confidence when it comes to athletics. It's sometimes stubborn to a fault.
When I was in Class II, we used to walk about 5 km. to school. I did not know of Olympics or even athletics then. One day, a friend went in a car and left me behind. I was so angry, I wanted to run and outrace the car. I ran so fast that I tripped and fractured my knee.
When I was in school, there was no such thing as girls' athletics.
There are a lot of kids coming in to athletics, but there is also a big drop-out rate. We've got it right at the top end, but we have to maintain the base of the pyramid.
I really want to make a big mark in athletics, to be a legend and be a good example to kids.
We want to make sure our athletes have a future once their athletics careers are over.
Not a lot of people know me outside of athletics and believe it or not I am actually quite shy. The exhilaration of a win or tears after falling are the extremes. It takes me a while to get to know someone, but once I do I am very loyal to my old friends.
I am of the firm view that there is no impediment to me competing in athletics competitions.
A big part of my life is music education because it changed my life - but arts, academics and athletics should all be equally treated in the school.
I can remember the day I decided I would retire from competitive athletics as vividly as if it were yesterday.
The kids who take up athletics actually come from modest to poor backgrounds. They make it on their own steam; some of them don't even have the basic means like shoes and enough food to eat.
In England I played everything - swimming, athletics, football, rugby, badminton, cricket - all of that stuff. I was in the first teams for all the sports at Brighton, played on the wing in rugby, and ran 100m, 200m, 400m, and did long jump and even the javelin at one point. In the States I did a bit of track, but mainly I was there for the boxing.
Thankfully, I found athletics. My mum didn't like it at first, but the funny thing is that, now, she's the biggest athletics fan out there. She's a real expert, and she's got all the heptathlon books.
I think the one thing that athletics prepared me for that's been more beneficial than anything has been the humbling times.
I was in the doldrums for a while after my athletics career ended in 1992. I spent six to eight hours a day training, for 18 years, and it took a long time to get over the regret that I wasn't competing in major championships any more. All I ever wanted to be was the best. But I find new projects and I keep things in perspective.
Football, that's just athletics. But in the business world - doing everything - people are competing. So you need good work ethics, and I think it helped me to develop good work ethics, being in a small town.
My childhood ambition was to be an Olympic swimmer like my aunt, but that died a quick death when I discovered other sports. I swam very competitively till I was 15, then I swam for fun until I was 18. But athletics remain a very big part of my life.
I have long been one of those tedious people who rails against the coronation of 'student-athletes.' I have heard the argument that big-time athletics bring in loads of money to universities. I don't believe the money goes anywhere other than back into the sports teams, but that's another story.
With athletics, you put all that training in for only two major championships a year and the Olympics every four years. So when you get on top of the podium, it is relief and excitement and... Oh! it has all been worthwhile... the hard work, the sacrifices.
When I picked athletics, I knew I wanted to be an Olympic champion.
Athletics, for me, was something I was pushed towards. I really wanted to play football when I was younger. Over the years, I started to enjoy it more and learn about it.
U.K. Athletics needs to develop a financial independence so it no longer has to be subject to the whim of politicians. If you are reliant on government, there is a big problem.
I have only ever done athletics. I was only average at school and I have never done any other sport.
We want to promote the great qualities of athletics - and maintain its integrity - all over the world.
Athletics is athletics. When you do sport, you are gambling. You run, you win, you lose. It doesn't matter if you are competing or you are not competing.
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.
Group events like cricket, football and kabaddi have private leagues, which are all being played for money. There are no such events in athletics. Everything is run by the government bodies, there's less money involved in our game, and we are not even paid as well as people in other sports.
Every international meeting or championship I do, I can cope a lot better because I can say I did the 100 m. hurdles, opened up the athletics at an Olympic Games in front of a home crowd, 80,000 people.
When I chose athletics, I knew I wanted to be Olympic champion, and now I have done it in London.
I played rugby in the winter, cricket in the summer, and for a brief period was on the books at Cardiff City. Athletics was only sports day for me. In fact, I never really liked it. I was never too keen on a sport that didn't have a ball at your feet.
We do not use managers, we are the representatives of our athletes, and that is why I am deeply involved in athletics, I follow our athletes careers from start to finish, 100% all the way.
I could never give up athletics. Running is what I will always do. Even if, maybe, the authorities could have stopped me from running in 2009, they could not have stopped me in the fields. I would have carried on with my running; it doesn't matter. When I run I feel free, my mind is free.
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.
It was just me and my mum growing up, and my mum's always said that's why I'm so mature. We were best friends, and if it wasn't for her, I wouldn't even have started athletics, because she wanted me to have a hobby.
I am delighted that Jason Gardener will be taking over from me as President of U.K. Athletics. With his competitive background in the sport as an Olympic champion coupled with his engaging personality and his experience as a board member of U.K. Athletics, he possesses all the qualities required to be a successful president.