Quotes About Olympics

When we stage the Olympics it will inspire kids all over the country. A kid in Scotland or Ireland will be encouraged to take up sport.

There used to be a lot more politics in the Olympics, when the Soviet Bloc committed a lot of resources for propaganda purposes.

In Hollywood you can see things at night that are fast enough to be in the Olympics in the day time.

Two debuted at Los Angeles: the introduction of the now familiar medal ceremony, with national anthems and a three-tiered podium; and the creation of an Olympic village, not just as a practical solution to an accommodation problem, but as a stage for the production of Olympic tableaux and messages. Berlin completed the curious evolution of the modern Olympics' use of mythic fire with the staging of a torch relay from Olympia to the host city.

Only with the London games of 1908 did the now familiar model of official gold, silver and bronze medals, awarded on the day they were won, emerge. Even then, the ceremony lacked drama. There was no podium, no flags, and no music, just the gruff words of IOC grandees and floral bouquets. Flags and music arrived in 1928, but there was still no podium.

And, for the everyday party members, it was, as the cheerful rhyme of the time went, 'Wenn die Olympiade vorbei, schlagen wir die Juden zu Brei' – 'When the Olympics are over, we will beat the Jews to a pulp'. It was open season again.

The Olympics: not one of my better memories.

My real goal is the Olympics. It's going to be tough but it was very good preparation to play here.

It is very good to be Olympic champion, but that is not the strongest field.

Great Britain have won 40% of their medals in cycling. If only there was snooker, darts and a dog show.

I'm proud of the U.S.A. We've done some amazing things. To wear our flag in the Olympics is an honor.

I was doing the family grocery shopping accompanied by two children, an event I hope to see included in the Olympics in the near future.

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)

The Olympic Games are the quadrennial celebration of the springtime of humanity.

The Kenyans haven't done much in the last two games, in fact they haven't competed since 1972

I graduated a the top of my class in the '84 Olympic Games; I won a gold medal.

Britain's last gold medal was a bronze in 1952 in Helsinki

The Games have been decimated. If you take away the Eastern Bloc, you take away 50% of the medals

It's the Olympics. If you can't get up to swim early in the morning, don't go.

I have confidence in how I've trained and prepared myself. I've dreamed about the Olympics for a long time, and it would be kind of silly and a waste to freak myself out.

Being 16 is such a great age because I'm still really young, and I'll still have a lot of chances. But the Olympics only come every four years, so you don't want to waste an opportunity.

What the event will be like, being part of the Olympics and being in London, is too much to think about. You've no control over those things, so in a way, it's wasted energy to think of them.

If you could play in the Olympics or sit on your couch and watch at home, what would you do? It was that simple. This is basketball; it's not war.

For any athlete growing up, the Olympics is the one thing you watch with your family, and it's the one thing you dream about. Seeing your country's flag go up as you get a gold medal is the best thing you can achieve.