With the responsibility of being a professional athlete, I believe that it is on us to go out there and help people.
Acting is sort of an extension of childhood. You get to play all of these roles and have so much fun. Playing an athlete would be so cool. Or where you get to shoot guns, ride horses. I wouldn't turn down any of that.
I would say that one of the hardest things for an athlete, and really anybody of any profession, is that we create our identity in what we do.
I think I've gotten more attention after the Olympics than any other U.S. athlete, and it's really great that people are recognizing who I am and what I do. You look at Shaq and you see a basketball player. You look at Tiger Woods and you see a golfer. But people are responding to who I am.
I'm an athlete rep, so I'll be available if they need me for anything.
Growing up in Harlem, I had the chance to practice with a Negro League team. At fifteen, I was over six feet tall and a fair athlete, but my skills didn't come close to some of the players I saw.
I'm a different athlete, I'm a different person.
My dad was a good athlete. My mom had longevity. There were some athletic genes that certainly got passed down.
It probably won't sink in until I've retired from running but I'm a much better athlete than two years ago.
As an athlete, when you have a desire and a want to do something, you fight for it. And it doesn't matter how long your journey is; it's whether you give up or don't.
When I was playing I never wished I was doing anything else. I think being a professional athlete is the finest thing a man can do.
I'm continuing to prepare very well because I have my responsibility and my (pride) as a man and an athlete.
Do you need to train two hours a day? Probably not. The reason why my celebrity clients have to train two hours a day is because their endurance level is so strong. For Madonna to get results and keep results, it's like a professional athlete training - she has to push harder.
When I go through the airport and see white women walking through the airport barefooted, like athlete's feet don't exist, there's something wrong.
My first year of college was tough. I thought that just being an athlete I could get by. I thought I was okay until I got kicked out, which happened twice.
I'm a professional athlete. I've been paid since I was in my early 20s to go out there and fight with guys who were 40 or 50 pounds heavier than I am and fight for my life. I got into a business where people make decisions based on some of the most stupid things.
I learned that the only way you are going to get anywhere in life is to work hard at it. Whether you're a musician, a writer, an athlete or a businessman, there is no getting around it. If you do, you'll win - if you don't, you won't.
I'm not an athlete dater, really. I would get too jealous. They're really gone all the time. Different hotel rooms.
Each great athlete must some day bow to that perennial old champion, Father Time, even as I, for Time eventually wins.
I remember growing up, having sports to go to, having recess, those were the things I looked forward to. Yes, I'm an athlete, but I had buddies who weren't, and they looked forward to it, too.
Born on an island, I could swim before I could walk, thrown many times into swimming pools and warm transparent Caribbean waters: sink or swim, that was my first lesson. While I'm not a natural athlete, I'm still a strong swimmer and feel a great affinity with the sea.
With 'Love & Basketball,' I played ball my whole life and did track at UCLA. So, I'm an athlete. And it was very important for me to get it right. I started with casting: As an athlete, there's nothing worse for me than watching a sports movie and the woman that they hire can't run or can't shoot. It sets women's sports back years.
Never played football, but I'm an athlete. I'm a competitor.
I am much more of a geek than I am an athlete.
When you invest your time, you make a goal and a decision of something that you want to accomplish. Whether it's make good grades in school, be a good athlete, be a good person, go down and do some community service and help somebody who's in need, whatever it is you choose to do, you're investing your time in that.
There's nothing masculine about being competitive. There's nothing masculine about trying to be the best at everything you do, nor is there anything wrong with it. I don't know why a female athlete has to defend her femininity just because she chooses to play sports.
No matter how many times it happens, the public always seems to be shocked when an athlete dies young, but the reality is, there are no promises.
We always spend more time on the throwing events and a little bit more on the long jump. They're my weaker events - they don't come as naturally to me as running and jumping. I like the hurdles and the high-jump, I'm a springy, speedy athlete so those suit me.
The most important part of this is to prepare the athlete for life in general and then be able to compete.
For an athlete, there's no time off... until it's over.
I was fully immersed in the now as an athlete.
We know that as a Christian athlete, people are watching, and so we want to be the best example we can be and show that we are different - that Christ has changed our lives.
I think nowadays it's so easy as an athlete to become a statistic whether or not you lose everything or having trouble or whatever it may be.
I never look backwards. I have always been an athlete. I boxed before I acted.
I was a nerd academically. But I was also an athlete and a musician. I never wanted to be shut out of any situation. I think it was that more than anything.
As an athlete, you'd better laugh at yourself when you slip in the mud.
