Quotes from Ashton Eaton

The questions to ask are, why was the decathlon so popular before, and what happened to make it fade? I notice a lot of things in general tend to follow that up-and-down trend.

The first pet I remember was a cat called Baby. She would sleep with me, and I could call her from anywhere, and she would come running.

You try to figure out the best way to throw the shot put, or the perfect way to long jump, and you don't ever get it. You just chip away, chip away, chip away as time goes on.

To be with the other two-time gold medalists is great, but it's great to just be a decathlete.

In high school, I had a gold 1992 Ford Explorer. It was a gift. I used to have a terrible habit of locking the keys in the car when I used leave the car running to help it start on a cold morning. I think the local locksmith became used to me calling him.

I haven't seen kids in years who have holes in the knees of their jeans. Now you go buy jeans with holes in them.

As athletes, we love to say, 'Just one more; I'm going to figure it out on this next one.' It's tough to pull back the reins and do what is smart physically, listening to your body and always ending a workout or session feeling like I could have done more.

When you're doing any event on an elite level, you're in tune with your body.

My biggest competitor? Myself, mentally.

The strong ones are the ones who realize that having a bad training day, those types of days are necessary.

I don't have one specific person that I think is the most athletic person.

In our marriage, the success of our athletic dreams comes before everything. 'Hey do you want to watch a movie?' 'No, I have a hard workout tomorrow.'

As you get older and gain more experience, you're able to do multiple things. You don't necessarily have to focus so hard on your performance in order to have a good one.

You see somebody on a football field make a great, athletic 70-yard run, but the athleticism is immeasurable. It's undoubtedly athletic, but compared to somebody else who did something else, how do you compare it? That's the great part of track and field. It's a test, but with results that you can compare to others.

There's never going to be a decathlon that you're going to have 10 events that your satisfied with. You're always, always going to be dissatisfied in something, and that always draws you back to try to retry that the next time you do a decathlon. It's like you go for the perfect 10.

When I was a junior and an up-and-coming athlete, I don't think I looked to anyone for inspiration. I was so busy trying to improve myself and learning these new events and learning about the decathlon in general that I didn't really have time to focus on anyone else.

Even though decathlon is really long, there's always something different to look forward to, which is great for mental stimulation.

The Olympic gold was like going to a theater and seeing a movie that had the ending you expected. But you left the theater thinking, 'You know, that was a good movie.'

From the age of seven, I basically started practicing my hand-eye and foot coordination, balance, strength, endurance, discipline, and mental toughness three days a week until I was about 15.

When I see my mom in the stands, it always pushes me to succeed.

If you have done something once, you can do it again or you can do it better. The beauty is the pursuit of the limit, not the limit itself. At least that's what I hope people realize.

I think watching multi-events is much worse than competing. Especially when you have vested interests because you go through the emotional ups and downs.

Know that even when you want to give up or throw in the towel, in the end it will all be worth the hard work.

The more you do, the more attrition you experience.