The decathlon takes so long to learn that people who are good athletes don't want to go back to the beginning again.
If you offer athletes stipends, then you're into pay-for-play, and that's the ballgame. People should realize that, and they should realize that amateurism never has been a sustainable model for a sports-entertainment industry. It wasn't in tennis. It wasn't in the Olympics. And it's not in big-time college sports.
I am so grateful to everybody that supports the Sheckler Foundation, and gives us the ability to continue to help kids and injured action sports athletes.
I love all sports! I'm always impressed by athletes. I also love watching the Olympic Games. In high school, I played co-ed soccer and basketball. I really enjoyed both of those sports, but I have to admit basketball wasn't my calling.
To go to hospitals and see people fight and overcome cystic fibrosis or cancer or any number of illnesses is to see courage that is humbling. And athletes constantly need to be humbled.
Victor Cruz just got his deal with Givenchy - amazing. I was so excited for him. That was amazing. So I think there are great opportunities for a lot of athletes out there.
We've got teams and other countries have teams. Right now, we are going to their countries; we're finding the best athletes; we're bringing them to our team. We're training them, we're making them awesome, and sending them back to beat us. We've got to stop that.
Olympic athletes have to find a job right after they're done competing.
I'm pretty proud of having completed a marathon myself, so I can only imagine the pride that real athletes feel when they are picked for the Olympic or the Paralympic Games.
Well, I do feel that I carry the responsibility of representing my country wherever I am, and this responsibility came with the success that I had in last couple of years, not just myself but the whole group of tennis players that comes from Serbia. And athletes in general are, in this moment, the biggest ambassadors that our country has.
We are doing very well for our country internationally, but when we are in Jamaica, our athletes are not being looked after. We are selling our country and marketing our country to the world and not being paid for it.
There are not many athletes who are out. And I think it's something that's important. It felt important to me. I guess it seems like a weight off my shoulders, because I've been playing a lot better than I've ever played before. I think I'm just enjoying myself, and I'm happy.
Times have changed. The athletes have changed.
Charles Barkley, Clyde Drexler and I used to argue for hours about who the best athletes are. I thought football players were better overall.
All our lives are enriched by the leadership and excellence and confidence of female athletes, whether the Mia Hamms and Maya Moores we know or the field hockey, lacrosse and track and field athletes we do not necessarily know.
I had pain in both knees my whole career. Not many athletes play pain-free. Mine was just more than normal.
At the end of the day, everything is God's plan, and he cares about what we do. He cares about our hearts, how we play the game, and how we treat people. He's definitely involved with how we handle sports and not just the outcome of it. I'm proud when athletes mention God in any way.
I think that, as athletes, sometimes we have the opportunities to make an impact. When it's authentic, I think there's room to share your opinion in an appropriate way.
Champions are not the ones who always win races - champions are the ones who get out there and try. And try harder the next time. And even harder the next time. 'Champion' is a state of mind. They are devoted. They compete to best themselves as much if not more than they compete to best others. Champions are not just athletes.
The Olympics were produced absolutely the same way from 1960 through 1988. It was always the Western World against the Eastern Bloc. You didn't even have to spend one second developing the character of any of the Eastern Bloc athletes. It was just good guys and bad guys.
Americans' addiction to sports, with the NFL at the top, is based on the excitement generated by the potential for the unexpected great play which can only happen with honest competition from great athletes.
I love the Olympic Games. The Olympics are an event that few can fathom but all can enjoy, and that's why athletes work our whole lives to put on the greatest show on Earth.
If you have market power like Nike, you can set terms that are much tougher because athletes value the endorsement of Nike - it means as much to them as it does to the company.
One thing I've learned, and I don't really blame anybody for this: most people who have a lot of money are the people that want to make money more than anyone. I've seen it with athletes, I've seen it with musicians, you know?
Personal technology has given us the freedom of being able to do whatever we want - and in the case of celebrities and athletes, whomever they want. But it can also serve as a humiliation jetpack.
I'm aware of the rift in the locker room. That's just alpha males and supreme athletes trying to share the spotlight.
If there's any indirect way I can motivate or inspire Olympic athletes... that is one of the greatest honors. Even Natalie Coughlin saying that I inspired her. I'm so humbled by that. I think that's amazing.
I think the four major leagues ought to set up a joint commission - say, of retired judges - to rule on athletes who are accused of doing bad things away from the game. Then each league would retain its independence in determining what penalties their players should get for infractions committed within the sport.
I have so much respect for athletes like LeBron James. I get motivation from them because I know how many hours they put into it. It takes a lot of hard work and drive.
As athletes, we sit and think, when international media or whoever make judgments or statements about Jamaica, 'Why aren't members of our federation coming out and speaking up for us?'
It's not my place to tell you whom to vote for, to take any political stand, to tell you what religion to believe in. I'm an athlete. I can influence certain things, but when I see other athletes and celebrities telling you whom to vote for, I actually get a bit offended.
I have always been small and one of the smallest heptathletes out there. And earlier in my career, I was faced with coaches and athletes who felt I was too small to be a multi-eventer. It gives you a push to show you can do it.
As a candidate, Obama disdained the game of politics, a self-conscious contrast to all the tireless political athletes named Clinton.
I would never encourage my children to be athletes - first because my children are not athletes and second because there are so many people pushing to get to the top in sports that 100 people are crushed for each one who breaks through. This is unfortunate.
As athletes, our job is to train and compete.
The only thing I advocate for is for equality for female athletes because we train just as hard, and we're always having a lot of head-to-head clashes, always competing against each other.