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Holding an Olympic Games means evoking history. -- Pierre de Coubertin
For too long the world has failed to recognise that the Olympic Games and the Olympic Movement are about fine athletics and fine art. -- Avery Brundage
The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part; the essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well. -- Pierre de Coubertin
Everybody knows my life. I won a lot of tournaments and scored more than 1,000 goals, won three World Cups but I could not play in Olympic Games. -- Pele
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. -- Johnny Weir
It is the inspiration of the Olympic Games that drives people not only to compete but to improve, and to bring lasting spiritual and moral benefits to the athlete and inspiration to those lucky enough to witness the athletic dedication. -- Herb Elliott
The torch relay is an excellent embodiment of all that the Olympic Games have come to symbolise - a celebration of the human spirit. Personally to me, it represents striving to be the best in whatever we do, never giving up despite the odds, and a commitment to health and fitness. -- Lakshmi Mittal
The Olympic Games are the quadrennial celebration of the springtime of humanity. -- Pierre de Coubertin
The Olympic Games were created for the exhaltation of the individual athlete. -- Pierre de Coubertin
The Olympic Games are for the world and all nations must be admitted to them. -- Pierre de Coubertin
Most other competitions are individual achievements, but the Olympic Games is something that belongs to everybody. -- Scott Hamilton
I love wushu a lot and I would love to see it included in future Olympic Games. -- Jackie Chan
I have always had a dream to take part in an Olympic Games, and losing my leg didn't change anything. -- Natalie du Toit
The 2012 London Olympic Games fostered a generation of hope. I witnessed women participating for the very first time, representing every nation. -- Jackie Joyner-Kersee
I was at the Olympic Games winning medals and I still doubted my image. I doubted what I looked like. That's sad. -- Shawn Johnson
My goals were last year to win the world champs and this year to win the Olympic Games and I've done that and I couldn't be happier. -- Sally Pearson
Sport allows us to engage in dialogue and to build bridges, and it may even have the capacity to reshape international relations. The Olympic Games embody perfectly this universal mission. -- Richard Attias
The Olympic Games must not be an end in itself, they must be a means of creating a vast program of physical education and sports competitions for all young people. -- Avery Brundage
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. -- Sebastian Coe
The Olympic Games must not be an end in itself, they must be a means of creating a vast programme of physical education and sports competitions for all young people. -- Avery Brundage
I never dreamed of being a flagbearer. Every athlete has a wish to get to the Olympic Games. I had that wish, but to carry the flag of your country is doubly thrilling. -- Shani Davis
I have the mentality of a winner. I first went to the Olympic Games when I was 17, three weeks after my O-levels, and I remember sitting in a dining-hall filled with the world's best athletes. -- Daley Thompson
My main point in this regard was to compete for my country and my people and to receive the support of the entire Cuban society, to carry my flag in whatever competition I was in, the Olympic Games, Pan-American Games. -- Alberto Juantorena
The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well. -- Pierre de Coubertin
In the name of all competitors, I promise that we will take part in these Olympic Games, respecting and abiding by all the rules which govern them in the true spirit of sportsmanship, for the glory of sport and the honour of our teams. -- Pierre de Coubertin
The Olympic Games are highly commercialised. They purport to follow the traditions of an ancient athletics competition, but today it is the commercial aspect that is most apparent. I have seen how, through sport, cities and corporations compete against each other for financial gain. -- Ai Weiwei
If the Olympic Games ever served a true altruistic purpose, they have long since outlived it. Yeah, the pursuit of athletic excellence, sportsmanship and international goodwill is plenty noble. But the modern Olympics are at best a vehicle for agitprop; at worst, a scandal magnet. -- John Ridley
Aristotle compiled the first known comprehensive list of all winners of the Olympic Games. Which means that quite probably he was sat in a bar with Plato, muttering 'Go on then, give me any year you like and I'll tell you who won the four-man bobsleigh.' -- Mark Steel
Hosting the Olympic Games of course guarantees the world's attention, but there is more to it than simply bathing in the global spotlight. Most importantly, host cities can use the opportunity to create a positive and lasting legacy, resulting in both tangible and intangible returns to local communities. -- Eduardo Paes
It has been said that the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games is something that an athlete will remember for the rest of their life. It is true. That moment when you walk into the Olympic Stadium as part of the Australian Olympic Team, is a moment that I will never forget. -- Jeff Fenech
We live in a world where sports have the potential to bridge the gap between racism, sexism and discrimination. The 2012 Olympic Games was a great start but hopefully what these games taught us is that if women are given an opportunity on an equal playing field the possibilities for women are endless. -- Jackie Joyner-Kersee
I wrote 'Yellow Submarine' for the Beatles. I wrote the screenplay for 'The Games,' about the Olympic Games. I wrote 'Love Story,' both the novel and the screenplay. I wrote 'RPM' for Stanley Kramer. Plus, I wrote two scholarly books and a 400-page translation from the Latin, and I dated June Wilkinson! -- Erich Segal
I have a phenomenal team behind me who have helped get me here and I, along with them, will now put everything we can into the final few weeks of preparations before the Olympic Games, where I am aiming to race well, work well through the rounds, post good times and maybe even a personal best time on the biggest stage of them all. -- Oscar Pistorius
The pressure of the Olympic Games is real overwhelming. -- Natalie Coughlin
The Olympic Games belong to the athletes and not to the politicians. -- Avery Brundage
The Republic-of-China - back in the Olympic Games for the first time -- David Coleman
The Olympic Games of the Modern Era began in 1896 in the city of Athens. -- Bill Toomey
The Olympic Games are a national cause, and a national cause calls for a nationwide attitude. -- Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki
Unfortunately, there are not many people in the world who get to experience the Olympic Games. -- Casey Eastham
The Olympic Games are always in the head of every sports athlete. We work for that. -- Tina Maze
The Olympic Games is holy. Athletes from around the world, including myself, of course, dream to participate. -- Yao Ming
The first Olympic Games were held in 776 BC. Do you know who lit the flame? Betty White. -- Jay Leno
If you can come to the Olympic Games and leave with a medal then that is alright. -- Yohan Blake
When you get to an event like the Olympic Games, you can put too much pressure on yourself. -- Eric Shanteau
There's not a whole lot of events out there on television, especially in the years between Olympic Games. -- Shannon Miller
I graduated a the top of my class in the '84 Olympic Games; I won a gold medal. -- Scott Hamilton
I'm so over the moon that I have the opportunity to represent my country at a third Olympic Games. -- Libby Trickett
To compete at the Olympic Games, I dreamed of any medal, but frankly speaking, I wanted a gold one. -- Adelina Sotnikova
I have always had a dream to take part in an Olympic Games, and losing my leg didn't change anything, -- Natalie du Toit
Pitching in the Olympic Games, Pan Am Games and Central American games prepared me to pitch at the big-league level. -- Jose Contreras
And, in nineteen seventy two Olympic Games I wasn't really going to be a star, and overnight I became a star. -- Olga Korbut
I never expected to win three medals in the Athens Olympic Games. Of course, I would rather have won one gold. -- Marian Dragulescu
Nothing I have done professionally will top the feeling I got when singing with John Farnham at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. -- Olivia Newton-John
Qualifying for the Olympic Games was one of those moments where you just cry because it was like you've climbed Mount Everest. -- Natalie du Toit
My family love living in London. It is a fantastic city and a city such as this deserves to host the Olympic Games. -- Jose Mourinho
I would prefer chess to become part of the Olympic Games. This would also lead to chess become more accepted as a sport in general. -- Viswanathan Anand
I hope it really comes off. It would make my dad really proud." (about the song for the coming 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens, Greece) -- George Michael
I'd been ready too, because before Olympic Games, I wasn't compete in big competition like, World Championship, like European Championship. I just competed in national competition. -- Olga Korbut
And I suggested to change very simple way to Olympic Games, in one competition, two different levels. Separate from, until sixteen, and after sixteen years old. -- Olga Korbut
And from that nineteen sixty four, this was my goal to go to Olympic Games. And I realized what does it mean, Olympic Games, like big celebration. -- Olga Korbut
My dream was always to win in the Olympic Games, but I never set that next goal, and I have realised now I need to set another goal. -- Cameron van der Burgh
Many track and field people know that if I stay relaxed and run my race like I'm supposed to, I will be the winner at the Olympic Games. -- Asafa Powell
I think the Olympic Games have been married to political statements. If I go back to Berlin in 1936, it was very politically orientated then, just with the Nazis. -- John Carlos
The Olympic Games are not just ordinary world championships but a quadrennial festival of universal youth. . . celebrated by each succeeding generation as it arrives on the threshold of adulthood. -- Pierre de Coubertin
In the spirit of the Olympic Games, they traditionally ask that all fighting and warfare around the world stop. So, there's hope for a ceasefire within the Jackson family. -- Jay Leno
It's been a dream for me since I was six years old to go to the Olympic Games and to finally have that dream realised is something massive for me. -- Natalie du Toit
When you are at the Olympic Games, it comes down to a ten thousandth of a hair between making the next round or winning a race or getting second or third. -- Apolo Ohno
As many as three million people are expected to attend the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, British Columbia. The security concerns and economic opportunities are great for both Canada and Washington state. -- Rick Larsen
People talk about retiring. I never said that r-word. People though I went away after the Olympic Games. I took time off to do something I've always wanted to be - a mother. -- Gail Devers
The Olympic Games are always in the head of every sports athlete. We work for that. The Olympics are the most important race. They're each four years, and everybody wants to show their best performance. -- Tina Maze
When you're at an Olympic Games watching someone you've known for a long while and he or she has done something, even if it's only coming in the top 50, then you have a monumental night. -- Steve Bunce
Female success stories from sporting events like the Olympic Games have played a role in shifting the Indian perception to see the female athlete as a hero and a role model for young Indian girls. -- Richard Attias
If your Olympic Hero were to use the Worm in the 1996 Olympic Games, it would be so embarassing to all the other atheletes - and our country, mind you- that the USA would have finished behind Guam. -- Kurt Angle
Standing on the podium at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta and receiving a gold medal was the crowning jewel in a successful gymnastics career and, most certainly, the confirmation that my parents' sacrifices were not in vain. -- Dominique Moceanu
One of the purposes of the Olympic Games is to bring the nations of the world closer together, so that they can conduct an open dialogue. We [germans] should be careful about constantly imposing our values on others. -- Herbert Hainer
I ran the effort to bring the 2012 Olympic Games to New York City. We lost - on a global scale. To my surprise, life went on, and I learnt that nobody cares about your failures as much as you do. -- Daniel L. Doctoroff
And in nineteen seventy two I almost wasn't, on the team, but I knew about it just before Olympic Games for three months before this why this is was not very good for me. I'd been ready to go, you know. -- Olga Korbut
Remember before nineteen seventy two Olympic Games I was total skinny, I was small, very strong, they may be don't like to see a gymnastics like that. I don't know but, gymnastics, might. Nineteen seventy two supposed to be change somewhere. -- Olga Korbut
To be here, is a dream come true. A dream is something that you set for yourself, not what other people set for you. When I qualified in Seville I burst into tears. I couldn't believe that I was going to the Olympic Games. -- Natalie du Toit
Besides film, I'd like to be the young Regis. That would be great. Going back and forth from L.A. to New York. Doing stuff on food. Doing stuff on kids. Just talking about issues that are relevant. Doing things on the Olympic Games. -- Apolo Ohno
To have been selected to represent Team South Africa at the London 2012 Olympic Games in the individual 400m and the 4x400m relay is a real honor and I am so pleased that years of hard work, determination and sacrifice have all come together. -- Oscar Pistorius
[Vladimir] Putin intended to provide for a broad safety corridor [for the Olympic Games]. That's why Abkhazia was a more important and desired goal of Russian aggression against Georgia than South Ossetia, which merely served as a pretext. Concerns mainly centered on the Crimea. -- Garry Kasparov
I was ready in 2008 for the Olympic Games but unfortunately I missed the Kenyan trials with a thigh injury. I watched those Olympics but it was tough to watch. But it was good in the end because a Kenyan, Wilfred Bungei, was the champion. -- David Rudisha
I love short track. I competed in short track, I was a world champion in 1986 but at that point in time it wasn't in the Olympic Games so I moved into long track. Short track is a blast to skate and it's a blast to watch. -- Bonnie Blair
I never expected i, in the first place, when I started playing tennis, that I would ever carry the flag into the Olympic Stadium for an Olympic Games... So for me that was a surprise and a huge honor in my life to be able to represent Switzerland. -- Roger Federer
Yeah, that's what kind of, we get the idea a little bit yeah, because other people from different countries also try as hard as they can to get a medal or a gold medal in the Olympic Games. And you know, if they can work hard, we can work hard as well. -- Inge de Bruijn
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. -- Sebastian Coe
I get more gratification out of getting some obese person who had a heart attack running around and enjoying life within a year. I get more gratification from that than putting a person in the Olympic Games. The Olympic athlete probably doesn't appreciate what you've done, but the other guy does. I think it's really rewarding. -- Arthur Lydiard
When I was first writing, I was writing mostly about sporting events, which was really what my assignments were. I was working on the Tour de France bike race and the Barcelona Olympic Games, and those songs tend to be very big, very bombastic-type music, which is the type of music that I love to write. -- John Tesh
The water here in Cardiff is much easier than in London, so for us it is more relaxing paddling here. This race is for us a continuation of our training, we will compete in only this World cup. We don't want to travel too much before the Olympic Games and we want to focus on the Games. -- Pavol Hochschorner
Olympics are probably the most important thing for Russians than any other athletes in the whole world. Since I was a little kid and since everybody was a little kid, their dream was playing in Olympic Games, especially if we have a chance to represent our country in Sochi, it's unbelievable and it's going to be a great thing. -- Alexander Ovechkin
I never had one day that I didn't want to be on the ice, because I always had an objective for that day. I had a rigorous plan and schedule in place that I had to adhere to. It was a step-by-step process of slowly but surely inching toward the Olympic Games and using every day as a series of goals to be accomplished. -- Apolo Ohno
Our world today is in need of peace, tolerance and brotherhood. The values of the Olympic Games can deliver these to us. May the Games be held in peace, in the true spirit of the Olympic Truce. Athletes of the 80 national Olympic committees, show us that sport unites by overcoming national, political, religious and language barriers. You can show us a world we all long for. -- Jacques Rogge
Winning is great, but being able to finish my last Olympic Games on American soil was very important. Even though I was injured, I didn't let my psyche get the best of me and cause me to doubt myself, so I was willing to pull every muscle in my body in '96 in order to get the job done and I came away with the bronze medal. -- Jackie Joyner-Kersee
For athletes, the Olympics are the ultimate test of their worth. -- Mary Lou Retton
All I've done is run fast. I don't see why people should make much fuss about that. -- Fanny Blankers-Koen
There can be distractions, but if you're isolated from the heart of the Games, the Olympics become just another competition. -- Mary Lou Retton
The greatest memory for me of the 1984 Olympics was not the individual honors, but standing on the podium with my teammates to receive our team gold medal. -- Mitch Gaylord
An Olympic medal is the greatest achievement and honor that can be received by an athlete. I would swap any World Title to have won gold at the Olympics. -- Jeff Fenech
My only focus was the Olympics because in my sport, that is the ultimate. Everything is geared toward that, and my entire life was geared around getting there and winning gold. -- Cammi Granato
I run to be known as the greatest runner, the greatest of all time. I could not eat or sleep for a week after I lost in the (1992) Olympics. I have to win or die. -- Noureddine Morceli
To anyone who has started out on a long campaign believing that the gold medal was destined for him, the feeling when, all of a sudden, the medal has gone somewhere else is quite indescribable. -- Sebastian Coe
At the Olympics, you there to do a job. I feel you should take it seriously. You should be respectful. You are putting on the red-white-and-blue and going out there to perform for your country. -- Shannon Miller
One shouldn't be afraid to lose; this is sport. One day you win; another day you lose. Of course, everyone wants to be the best. This is normal. This is what sport is about. This is why I love it. -- Oksana Baiul
Swimming and athletics are the big gigs at the Olympic games. Cycling and rowing are pretty big for Britain, but globally, the two big things are athletics and swimming. -- Clare Balding
I declare the 22nd Olympic Winter Games open. -- Shani Davis
Every city and country just has a different reason for wanting to host the [Olympic] games. -- Gary Hustwit
The Olympic games are already there and we don't have even half of what you need to train well. -- Dayron Robles
I have run with the Olympic Torch during the 2012 summer games in London and the 2014 winter games in Sochi. -- Ban Ki-moon
Which would you rather be, a conqueror in the Olympic games, or the crier that proclaims who are conquerors? -- Homer
Maybe we should hold the next [Olympic] games in Afghanistan and hope the Soviets pull out of that one too. -- Johnny Carson
The Olympic games should be a matter between individual athletes and the gods. Noisy flag-waving dishonors gods and men alike. -- Dave Beard
I hope the BWF (Badminton World Federation) will seriously do something about the Olympic qualifying format or risk getting badminton dropped from the Games. -- Taufik Hidayat
I'll have to say winning the Olympic gold in Atlanta is a crowning achievement, along with the gold in the relay in the same games. -- Donovan Bailey
Women made up 44% of Olympic competitors at London 2012 - the greatest show of gender equality in Olympic history. By comparison, in the 1908 Games men outnumbered women 53 to 1. -- Donna de Varona
We have made drugs an Olympic event. It receives most of the coverage at the Games and even the suspicion of guilt can ruin a reputation for life. -- Bill Toomey
Smaller cities, places like Sarajevo, for example, even amid all that destruction there's still so much pride that the [Olympic] games were there and that they did it. -- Gary Hustwit
Professionally, when I did the Olympic games and sang for my country in Australia. It was a big moment, Sydney in 2000. It was just a brilliant moment in my life. -- Olivia Newton-John
Themistocles being asked whether he would rather be Achilles or Homer, said, "Which would you rather be, a conqueror in the Olympic games, or the crier that proclaims who are conquerors? -- Plutarch

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