Quotes About Competition

There is always anxiety before a competition and it was no different for me today. It was only in the third round, with about 40 targets left, that I realised I could match the world record score.

When my world record got broken in 1999, it hurt a little bit, to say the least. But I was in a leg brace at the time and I had just had knee surgery and I couldn't do anything about it.

I felt I was never going to beat Igor Ter-Ovanesyan or Ralph Boston because they were the joint world record holders.

I had a great season and truly enjoyed competing around the world - from Monaco, where I managed to establish a world record, to Beijing, where I finally captured my first world outdoor title.

I can't be disappointed with my first gold in a senior championship, and to score 5000 points, which only one other woman, the world record holder, has got over, I am satisfied.

When you take the world record, a lot of people are going to go out there to get you, really. I kind of enjoy that. I like being chased.

I called Daley Thompson after the Games of '84, when he won. He'd had this phenomenal decathlon for nine events - and then he went out there and jogged the 1,500 meters and missed the world record by, like, three points.

I'm probably a lot more closer in the 1500m to the world record than I am in the 5000m.

Records are there to be broken. Lots of people would love to swap their world record for an Olympic medal, but for me, my medals are there forever and ever, and that's what does it for me.

When we race in London a world record will be the last thing on our minds.

I don't know how you keep the world record holder off your team.

Athens is a great place for me. It is my second home. It's where I won my first world championship medal, it's where I set my world record.

The London games mark the 24th anniversary of my winning two golds and setting the world record in the heptathlon. Someone is going to want it; records are made to be broken - it's only a matter of time. I hope mine will outlive me.

Rivalries don't necessarily mean races being close at major championships. I had a rivalry with Butch Reynolds for many years. I won all the races, but Butch was the world record holder before I came into the sport, he was extremely talented and he was the only other man running 43 seconds.

You don't want people thinking you're a cheat just because you're really fast and have broken the world record by a second.

The heptathlon world record is nice, but the decathlon is the event. I think the heptathlon is more like a practice. There is something completely different about the decathlon.

Sometimes you'll get a player who's marking you tightly, and he'll even apologise and say, 'My coach told me to stick close to you and mark you. I know you're a great player.' But I tell him it's fine and to do what he has to do.

I played rugby league, I probably played for about 10 years I think, and I wrestled before then. I did about a year of wrestling, and I think I got a bit tired of the tights, so I started to play football with the mates. I used to be a front rower, the big guys up front. I used to be 97 kilograms, which is like 210 pounds, or something like that.

The whole of society is like a cabbage-stalk covered with caterpillars, and none is satisfied till it has crawled to the top.

In America, people know there are always 10 people better than them who are after their job. In France, they know that too - but no one is going to get their job till they go to their grave.

My childhood ambition was to be an Olympic swimmer like my aunt, but that died a quick death when I discovered other sports. I swam very competitively till I was 15, then I swam for fun until I was 18. But athletics remain a very big part of my life.

I swam very competitively till I was 15, then I swam for fun until I was 18. But athletics remain a very big part of my life. I try to keep that as much in balance with work as I can.

At the end of the day, my job is to play cricket, and till the time I am playing against any opposition, I am happy.

To be honest, any one of those guys that I've stepped in the Octagon with - Darren Till, Anthony Pettis, Tyron Woodley - I would love to step back in the Octagon with those guys.