Jesse Owens Quotes

To a sprinter, the hundred-yard dash is over in three seconds, not nine or ten. The first 'second' is when you come out of the blocks. The next is when you look up and take your first few strides to attain gain position. By that time the race is actually about half over. The final 'second' - the longest slice of time in the world for an athlete - is that last half of the race, when you really bear down and see what you're made of. It seems to take an eternity, yet is all over before you can think what's happening.

Speed is more important than endurance in the decathlon.

I ran track, and I was really good at it. I was really fast.

My weakness might be that the guys with the longer legs can hold their top speed a little bit longer and might not slow down as fast at the end of the race.

If you put me against most sprinters in the world, I reckon over a start I could get very close, if not take them.

Coming into tonight, I knew it was going to be a great race, ... In the 400, Laszlo put up a 4:10.1 earlier in the year, and so you expect him to put up a good time in (the 200). I knew Ryan was going to be fast coming off his short course season, and he's improved a lot since Athens, so I just wanted to go out there and relax a bit and go out there and do what I had to do.

I'm a competitor. I really enjoyed the race more than just going out and running to run.

I just want to give my best in London, I want to cross that line and see a personal best on the clock then I will see what position I am in.

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

I went to Beijing for the Olympics and was literally right across the track from Usain Bolt. And when he gets to full stride, for every two steps the other guy's taking, he's just taking one.

The world record will come to me when I run the world record race. I'm just trying to perfect my race. I'm looking for perfection.

I don't need to scare the other athletes. When I'm running, I will scare them.

I don't know why I run so fast. I just run.

I always wanted to be a sprinter.

There are guys out there faster than me.

I enjoy racing so much. Ever since I was 8 or 9, I trained every stroke, because it was the only way I could race a lot.

I'm going to focus on speed, doing little things like my turns and my starts - just speed.

I love competition because I've always run faster when somebody was running next to me.

Racing is very physical.

When I'm on the track, I like hearing the fans cheer me on.

I wouldn't know who Michael Johnson was if he didn't run fast times.

I can't remember what times I used to do in training because I always loved football and didn't have any interest in an athletics career. But I was always the quickest.

What I think is about running faster and faster, and I believe that will translate into medals.

Before, when Bolt was in the race, it was about who's going to get second. You just come and want to watch Bolt run, it's always exciting because you know he always puts on a show.

In cycling, you just race. When you get to the finish, you see the result.