Frank Deford Quotes

I wasn't artistic in drawing or painting, but I think I am artistic in sport. I think I'm always looking for the ultimate, the maximum. It's a challenge that excites me.

Playwrights have texts, composers have scores, painters and sculptors have the residue of those activities, and dance is traditionally an ephemeral, effervescent, here-today-gone-tomorrow kind of thing.

I'm an athlete. I'm a performer. Why the hell did I never think of combining the two?

The ephemeral nature of live performance is the part I love most - it's a monk's sand painting, carefully constructed, then wiped away in an instant.

If architecture is, as is sometimes said, music set in concrete, then football and basketball may be said to be creativity embodied in team sports.

I feel when somebody has been playing cricket for a long time, he creates a separate identity for himself.

Boxing is a sport, but it's also entertainment. I wanted to transcend the sport and be considered just not as a fighter, or a champion, but someone very special.

And there is such a thing as a decathlon high. It's like a rock rolling down hill, picking up momentum. You get better and better.

I wouldn't say that there's ever been an Olympic champion that didn't deserve to win an Olympic Gold Medal.

I've always been really inspired by watching top athletes putting in peak performances.

It took me time to realize that the men who won Olympic gold medals in the decathlon are just men, just like me.

To the humblest among them, who may be listening to me now, I want to say that the masterpiece to which you are paying historic homage this evening is a painting which he has saved.

I was obsessed with the Olympics. It's so exciting to see that level of excellence and endurance.

Acting is a general thing; it's not like being a primary artist like a painter or writer which stands the test of time. I don't think acting stands the test of time, but it can capture the mood of the moment, which is in itself very exciting, but it rarely lasts.

People may remember something I did on the field for a couple of days, maybe a week.

My parents were athletes; they met at a track meet: they were runners.

Nike was the essence of sports, transcendence through sports.

No one put pressure on me to go to the Olympics; once I'd got the qualifying mark, I just couldn't say no.

I will miss the day to day stuff because I love coaching. I love being out on the pitch.

For Americans, of course, it's football, basketball, and baseball. We live for it. In many ways, it sums up who we are. In Iran, it's all about wrestling. The patriotism toward their country comes out in the way they wrestle, so it makes sense why they're the best.

We are a great fit, and I'm excited about the chance to influence a new generation of young footballers alongside Warrior.

I had a little bit of expectations just to be not terrible, because you can't be named so similar to a sport and not be at least adequate at that sport. I don't think there's been expectations to be really good, because my parents never put that kind of pressure on me, but I had to be at least decent.

When I came into the gym, I wasn't just some guy. I was a two-time Olympian.

I want to be recognized for my performance as an athlete and not because of who I am.

The more I think about the Olympics, even from afar, its mere concept stuns me. I can't think of any other line of work where, every four years, people gather to be ranked one, two, and three, then are more or less told to evaporate until the next go-around.