It’s just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up.

I’ve never lost a game. I just ran out of time.

I’ve got a theory that if you give 100% all of the time, somehow things will work out in the end.

Winning isn’t everything, but it beats anything that comes in second.

Don’t measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability.

I don’t plan on being disappointed. We plan on being really good, and obviously, we plan on winning.

I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.

You can’t get much done in life if you only work on the days when you feel good.

Some people say I have attitude – maybe I do…but I think you have to. You have to believe in yourself when no one else does – that makes you a winner right there.

A champion is afraid of losing. Everyone else is afraid of winning.

Passion first and everything will fall into place.

A trophy carries dust. Memories last forever.

Talent is God given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful.

Show me a guy who’s afraid to look bad, and I’ll show you a guy you can beat every time.

What keeps me going is not winning, but the quest for reaching potential in myself as a coach and my kids as divers. It’s the pursuit of excellence.

The hardest skill to acquire in this sport is the one where you compete all out, give it all you have, and you are still getting beat no matter what you do. When you have the killer instinct to fight through that, it is very special.

Winning is not a sometime thing; it’s an all time thing. You don’t win once in a while, you don’t do things right once in a while, you do them right all the time. Winning is habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.

Most talented players don’t always succeed. Some don’t even make the team. It’s more what’s inside.

There are certain basic qualities and characteristics you’ve got to have. Number one: you’ve got to have a will to win.

The key is not the will to win. Everybody has that. It is the will to prepare to win that is important.

Champions keep playing until they get it right.

A champion is someone who does not settle for that day’s practice, that day’s competition, that day’s performance. They are always striving to be better. They don’t live in the past.

Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.

Push yourself again and again. Don’t give an inch until the final buzzer sounds.

Only he who can see the invisible can do the impossible.

Today, you have 100% of your life left.

Show me a gracious loser and I’ll show you a failure.

The man who has no imagination has no wings.

I tell the kids, somebody’s gotta win, somebody’s gotta lose. Just don’t fight about it. Just try to get better.

Never say never because limits, like fears, are often just an illusion.

The will to win is important, but the will to prepare is vital.

You can motivate by fear, and you can motivate by reward. But both those methods are only temporary. The only lasting thing is self motivation.

You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.

If you have everything under control, you’re not moving fast enough.

Victory is in having done your best. If you’ve done your best, you’ve won.

Adversity causes some men to break; others to break records.

There are only two options regarding commitment. You’re either IN or you’re OUT. There is no such thing as life in-between.

Age is no barrier. It’s a limitation you put on your mind.

You might not be able to outthink, out market or outspend your competition, but you can outwork them.

Do not let what you can not do interfere with what you can do.

Nothing is black-and-white, except for winning and losing, and maybe that’s why people gravitate to that so much.

I became a good pitcher when I stopped trying to make them miss the ball and started trying to make them hit it.

My motto was always to keep swinging. Whether I was in a slump or feeling badly or having trouble off the field, the only thing to do was keep swinging.”

Just keep going. Everybody gets better if they keep at it.

Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up.

Winning solves everything.

It is not the size of a man but the size of his heart that matters.

If you train hard, you’ll not only be hard, you’ll be hard to beat.

Always make a total effort, even when the odds are against you.

The principle is competing against yourself. It’s about self-improvement, about being better than you were the day before.

If you think it’s hard to meet new people, try picking up the wrong golf ball.

One man practicing sportsmanship is far better than 50 preaching it.

You were born to be a player. You were meant to be here. This moment is yours.

When you’re riding, only the race in which you’re riding is important.

Pain is only temporary but victory is forever.

I’ve failed over & over & over again in my life & that is why I succeed.

You have to do something in your life that is honorable and not cowardly if you are to live in peace with yourself.

Finding good players is easy. Getting them to play as a team is another story.

Procrastination is one of the most common and deadliest of diseases and its toll on success and happiness is heavy.

There may be people that have more talent than you, but there’s no excuse for anyone to work harder than you do.

If it doesn’t challenge you, it won’t change you.

The highest compliment that you can pay me is to say that I work hard every day, that I never dog it.

It’s not whether you get knocked down; it’s whether you get up.

I don’t have to wait for nobody, I move when I wanna move.

95. “You’re never a loser until you quit trying.

Without self-discipline, success is impossible, period.

If you don’t have confidence, you’ll always find a way not to win.

Competitive sports are played mainly on a five-and-a-half inch court, the space between your ears.

Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.

At a young age winning is not the most important thing… the important thing is to develop creative and skilled players with good confidence.

Most people give up just when they’re about to achieve success. They quit on the one yard line. They give up at the last minute of the game one foot from a winning touchdown.

I think sports gave me the first place where this awkward girl could feel comfortable in my own skin. I think that’s true for a lot of women—sports gives you a part of your life where you can work at something and you look in the mirror and you like that person.

You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.

Once you learn to quit, it becomes a habit.

A champion needs a motivation above and beyond winning.

It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up.” “Heroes get remembered, but legends never die.

I always felt that my greatest asset was not my physical ability, it was my mental ability.

Gold medals aren’t really made of gold. They’re made of sweat, determination, and a hard-to-find alloy called guts.

An athlete cannot run with money in his pockets. He must run with hope in his heart and dreams in his head.

Never let your head hang down. Never give up and sit down and grieve. Find another way.

Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever.

Today I will do what others won’t, so tomorrow I can accomplish what others can’t.

If you can believe it, the mind can achieve it.

The more difficult the victory, the greater the happiness in winning.

The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a man’s determination.

Do you know what my favorite part of the game is? The opportunity to play.

You can’t win unless you learn how to lose.

You can’t put a limit on anything. The more you dream, the farther you get.

What do you do with a mistake: recognize it, admit it, learn from it, forget it.

The only way to prove that you’re a good sport is to lose.

If you are afraid of failure you don’t deserve to be successful!

To uncover your true potential you must first find your own limits and then you have to have the courage to blow past them.

Every kid around the world who plays soccer wants to be Pele. I have a great responsibility to show them not just how to be like a soccer player, but how to be like a man.

Winning isn’t everything, but wanting to win is.

Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.

Just be patient. Let the game come to you. Don’t rush. Be quick, but don’t hurry.

In the end, the game comes down to one thing: man against man. May the best man win.

Life is gonna throw you curve balls and it’s how you deal with them and your attitude and your work ethic.

For me, winning isn’t something that happens suddenly on the field when the whistle blows and the crowds roar. Winning is something that builds physically and mentally every day that you train and every night that you dream.”

Here is the latest collection of the best inspirational sports quotes!

Inspiring sports quotes for athletes on becoming legends & champions. These sports quotes on winning, losing & success are from famous athletes & coaches.

MICHAEL PHELPS

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