Best 108 Motivational Quotes By Athletes

Motivational quotes by athletes are a great source of inspiration and motivation for sports enthusiasts and even non-athletes. These quotes serve as a reminder that hard work, dedication, and perseverance are key to achieving success in any endeavour. Athletes often face challenges and setbacks, but their ability to overcome them and rise to the top is what makes them great. Whether it’s a basketball player, football player, or Olympic athlete, their words of wisdom can inspire us to push ourselves to the limit and achieve our goals. In this article, we’ll explore some of the most motivational quotes by athletes that will help you stay motivated and focused on your own journey to success.

1. “You can’t put a limit on anything. The more you dream, the farther you get.” – Michael Phelps
2. “Age is no barrier. It’s a limitation you put on your mind.” – Jackie Joyner-Kelsey
3. “If I didn’t swim my best, I’d think about it at school, at dinner, with my friends. It would drive me crazy.” – Michael Phelps
4. “The more difficult the victory, the greater the happiness in winning.” – Pele
5. “I don’t want to be the next Michael Jordan, I only want to be Kobe Bryant.” – Kobe Bryant
6. “In the end, it’s the extra effort that separates a winner from second place. It takes desire, determination, discipline, and self-sacrifice. Put all these together, and even if you don’t win, how can you lose?” – Jesse Owens
7. “I’ll do whatever it takes to win games, whether it’s sitting on a bench waving a towel, handing a cup of water to a teammate, or hitting the game-winning shot.” – Kobe Bryant
8. “I’m going to stick to it.” – Mary Lou Retton
9. “The most important thing is to try and inspire people so that they can be great in whatever they want to do.” – Kobe Bryant
10. “Sportsmanship for me is when a guy walks off the court and you really can’t tell whether he won or lost when he carries himself with pride either way.” – Muhammad Ali
11. “As an athlete, I’d average 4 hours a day. It doesn’t sound like a lot when some people say they’re training for 10 hours, but theirs includes lunch, massage and break. My four hours were packed with work.” – Michael Johnson
12. “Never let your head hang down. Never give up and sit down and grieve. Find another way.” – Satchel Paige
13. “You can’t control what the other athlete does; you can’t control anything except for your competition and how you execute the race or how you execute the task.” – Michael Johnson
14. “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games; 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” – Michael Jordan
15. “Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.” – Michael Jordan
16. “Winning isn’t everything, but wanting to win is.” – Vince Lombardi
17. “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” – Michael Jordan
18. “Do you know what my favourite part of the game is? The opportunity to play.” – Mike Singletary
19. “If you do the work you get rewarded. There are no shortcuts in life.” – Michael Jordan
20. “If you can believe it, the mind can achieve it.” – Ronnie Lott
21. “He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.” – Muhammad Ali
22. “Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” – John Wooden
23. “I hated every minute of training, but I said, don’t quit, suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.” – Muhammad Ali
24. “Success is where preparation and opportunity meet.” – Bobby Unser
25. “It’s lack of faith that makes people afraid of meeting challenges, and I believed in myself.” – Muhammad Ali
26. “You can’t put a limit on anything. The more you dream, the farther you get.” – Michael Phelps
27. “Every day of my life, I’m trying to find a way to get better.” – Ray Lewis
28. “It’s not the will to win that matters – everyone has that. It’s that will to prepare to win that matters.” – Bear Bryant
29. “Greatness is a lot of small things done well.” – Ray Lewis
30. “I never worry about the problem. I worry about the solution.” – Shaquille O’Neal
31. “Don’t walk through life just playing football. Don’t walk through life just being an athlete. Athletics will fade. Character and integrity and really making an impact on someone’s life, that’s the ultimate vision, that’s the ultimate goal – bottom line.” – Ray Lewis
32. “Sports do not build character. They reveal it.” – Heywood Broun
33. “No matter the circumstances that you may be going through, just push through it.” – Ray Lewis
34.  “You should never stay at the same level. Always push yourself to the next.” – Marnelli Dimzon
35. “You’re playing a game, whether it’s Little League or Game 7 of the Word Series. It’s impossible to do well unless you’re having a good time. People talk about pressure. Yeah, there’s pressure. But I just look at it as fun.” – Derek Jeter
36.  “There’s no substitute for hard work. If you work hard and prepare yourself, you might get beat, but you’ll never lose.” – Nancy Lieberman
37. “I like to hit the gym early in the morning. I feel better throughout the day when I get in a workout first thing in the morning.” – Derek Jeter
38.  “They say discipline and dedication and respect are the key factors, but patience is a virtue that is absolutely essential!” – Ria Ramnarine
39. “When I was younger, I was always taught not to make excuses.” – Derek Jeter
40. “There are always new, grander challenges to confront, and a true winner will embrace each one.” – Mia Hamm
41. “I want to be able to separate the average from the good and from the great. I want to separate the ordinary from the extraordinary.” – Floyd Mayweather
42. “I’d rather regret the risks that didn’t work out than the chances I didn’t take at all.” – Simone Biles
43. “It’s about having personality…it’s not about being the bad guy, it’s about entertaining people.” – Floyd Mayweather
44.  “There is always going to be a reason why you can’t do something; your job is to constantly look for the reasons why you can achieve your dreams.” – Shannon Miller
45. “The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.” – Vince Lombardi
46. “Champions keep playing until they get it right.” – Billie Jean King
47. “Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.” – Vince Lombardi
48. “You make your own luck. You make it in training.” – Simone Biles
49. “The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary.” – Vince Lombardi
50.  “If you think you’re done, you always have at least 40 percent more.” – Lauren Crandall
51. “Winners never quit and quitters never win.” – Vince Lombardi
52. “Erase the word “failure” from your vocabulary. No case is ever truly closed, and no challenge is ever over.” – Mary Lou Retton
53. “The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.” – Vince Lombardi
54.  “Many times, I had to dig deep and perform. All of that adversity helped me and drove me to want to be the best.” – Hayley Wickenheiser
55. “It’s not whether you get knocked down; it’s whether you get up.” – Vince Lombardi
56. Set realistic goals, keep re-evaluating, and be consistent.” – Venus Williams
57. “I’ve learned over the years that if you start thinking about the race, it stresses you out a little bit. I just try to relax and think about video games, what I’m gonna do after the race, what I’m gonna do just to chill. Stuff like that to relax a little before the race.” – Usain Bolt
58.  “If you care about the people you work with then you work harder.” – Kristine Lilly
59. “Don’t think about the start of the race, think about the ending.” – Usain Bolt
60. “I always try to start out with some type of goal. Then I work backward and think of what I need to do to get there, and give myself smaller goals that are more immediate.” – Kristi Yamaguchi
61. “The highest compliment that you can pay me is to say that I work hard every day, that I never do it.” – Wayne Gretzky
62. “We can push ourselves further. We always have more to give.” – Simone Biles
63. “You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.” – Wayne Gretzky
64. “No matter what the competition is, I try to find a goal that day and better that goal.” – Bonnie Blair
65. Persistence can change failure into extraordinary achievement.” – Matt Biondi
66.  “I believe in the impossible because no one else does.” – Florence Griffith Joyner
67. “Do not let what you can not do interfere with what you can do.” – John Wooden
68. “You can’t always be the best. You have to remember that everyone makes mistakes sometimes.” – Aly Raisman
69. “Never let your head hang down. Never give up and sit down and grieve. Find another way.” – Satchel Paige
70.  “Continuous effort — not strength or intelligence — is the key to unlocking our potential.” – Liane Cardes
71. “There are only two options regarding commitment. You’re either IN or you’re OUT. There is no such thing as life in-between.” – Pat Riley
72. “Overpower. Overtake. Overcome.” – Serena Williams
73. “Some people say I have an 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.” – Venus Williams
74. “The greatest asset is a strong mind. If I know someone is training harder than I am, I have no excuses.” – P.V. Sindhu
75. “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.” – Ross Perot
76. “Passion first and everything will fall into place.” – Holly Holm
77. “I always felt that my greatest asset was not my physical ability, it was my mental ability.” – Bruce Jenner
78.  “Once you give them the power to tell you you’re great, you’ve also given them the power to tell you you’re unworthy. Once you start caring about people’s opinions of you, you give up control.” – Ronda Rousey
79. “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.” – Hank Aaron
80.  “Take your victories, whatever they may be, cherish them, use them, but don’t settle for them.” – Mia Hamm
81. “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.” – Homer Rice
82. “The ability to conquer oneself is no doubt the most precious of all things that sports bestows.” – Olga Korbut
83. “If you don’t have confidence, you’ll always find a way not to win.” – Carl Lewis
84. “If you persevere long enough, if you do the right things long enough, the right things will happen.” – Manon Rheaume
85. “If you have everything under control, you’re not moving fast enough.” – Mario Andretti
86.  “The potential for greatness lives within each of us.” – Wilma Rudolph
87. “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.” – Lance Armstrong
88. “As much time as you put into it, that’s what your achievements are going to be when you come out of it.” – Mary Lou Retton
89. “The principle is competing against yourself. It’s about self-improvement, about being better than you were the day before.” – Steve Young
90. “I know how to smile, I know how to laugh, I know how to play. But I know how to do these things only after I have fulfilled my mission.” – Nadia Comaneci
91. “You’re never a loser until you quit trying.” – Mike Ditka
92. “You control your own wins and losses.” – Maria Sharapova
93.  “It’s better to fail aiming high than to succeed aiming low.” – Bill Nicholson
94. “It doesn’t matter what you’re trying to accomplish. It’s all a matter of discipline.” – Wilma Rudolph
95. “When you see a good move, look for a better one.” – Emanuel Lasker
96. “You’ve got to be confident when you’re competing. You’ve got to be a beast.” – Gabby Douglas
97. “Set your goals high, and don’t stop till you get there.” – Bo Jackson
98. “If you want to achieve something in life, you have to take risks.” – Dipa Karmakar
99. “Just keep going. Everybody gets better if they keep at it.” – Ted Williams
100. “Courage, sacrifice, determination, commitment, toughness, heart, talent, guts. That’s what little girls are made of; the heck with sugar and spice.” – Bethany Hamilton
101. “Champions keep playing until they get it right.” – Billie Jean King
102. “The only one who can tell you “you can’t win” is you and you don’t have to listen.” – Jessica Ennis
103. “There may be people who have more talent than you, but there’s no excuse for anyone to work harder than you do.” – Derek Jeter
104. “Don’t let your fear decide your future.” – Shalane Flanagan
105. “Somewhere behind the athlete you’ve become and the hours of practice and coaches who have pushed you is a little girl who fell in love with the game and never looked back … play for her.” – Mia Hamm
106.  “People would say, ‘Girls don’t play hockey. Girls don’t skate.’ I would say, ‘Watch this.’” – Hayley Wickenheiser
107. “A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be.” – Wayne Gretzky
108. “All the physical comes from the mental.” – Clara Hughes

conclusion

In conclusion, motivational quotes by athletes can inspire us to push ourselves beyond our limits and achieve greatness. These athletes have faced countless obstacles and challenges in their journey to success, and their words can help us to stay focused and determined in our own pursuits. Whether we’re looking to improve our physical abilities or achieve success in other areas of our lives, the wisdom of athletes can guide us towards reaching our goals. By incorporating these motivational quotes into our daily routine, we can stay inspired and motivated to chase after our dreams, no matter how challenging they may seem.