I have spoken with many former athletes, and they tell me the best time they had was in sports. I listen to them and use their experience in my career.

I have bought pole vault equipment, the landing areas, posts, which costs a lot of money. We pay for coaches.

People come from around the world and can understand each other without even speaking the same languages!

The pole vault is a very complicated event, there are many things involved.

The Olympics are always a special competition, it is very difficult to predict what will happen.

My policy was just to give good things for sports in my region.

I have spoken with many former athletes, and they tell me the best time they had was in sports. I listen to them and use their experience in my career.

We started with that, basically to help kids, and then we created a pole vault school, which is part of the club and exists to this day. The club and school exist.

Sports life is very short.

What is nice about this sport is that I am responsible for most everything.

Today I have 35 people who work in the club and associated businesses.

I think that focusing on the money, on the business, is not enough.

The strategy of my coach and me was that we looked at pictures of all the best pole vaulters from around the world, and we took the best parts from them, and we created a person that had never existed. We then started to work toward being such a person.

I think that, generally, you need to live with your sport 24 hours a day.

Of course, the psychological part, the tactics, is very important.

I decided to create a sports club during the Soviet times. It was my dream.

You need to work very hard, you have to spend a lot of time practicing your sport - six to seven hours daily.

And, of course, method is very important as is a high-quality specialist (trainer) working with you to keep you going in the right direction for your improvement and to help create results.

My main idea was to create a sports facility for the basics. This is why I established the club.

Often you need to take some risk, but it must be a realistic risk, you can't take a crazy risk.

I am alone, some people help me, but, basically, I can do what I want.

Even now I want to keep my amateur spirit, to spend my time, to be in the sport with all my heart.

I began with track and field because this is what I know.

My jump was imperfect, my run-in was too short and my hands were too far back at takeoff. When I manage to iron out these faults, I am sure I can improve.

Athletes as role models and heroes is a hoax, a sick hoax. The men and women who are fighting in Iraq, they are the true heroes.

No one will burn out doing aerobic running. It is too much anaerobic running, which the American scholastic athletic system tends to put young athletes through, that burns them out.

The bottom line is that these athletes tend to be safer investments because they really value their marketing opportunities. They don't make as much money as during their active careers.

For athletes, the Olympics are the ultimate test of their worth.

I always liked serve-and-volley players and big athletes.

Several professional athletes have wrongly taught many young Americans by example that the only way to succeed in sports is to take steroids.

There's that initial reticence for some athletes to take you seriously.

It strikes me that these days, clubs don't even want players who can truly play any more; they just want athletes, quick guys who don't have a football brain, can just run and run; some of them, Jesus. I can never imagine acting like that.

One of the perks of being an actor is to get to meet athletes that you respect. Especially who played before my time. Brooks Robinson is one of those athletes; they just don't make them any nicer.

The contracts are structured different than athletes in America, but for me, it was good to move on and go back to playing in the premiere league, which is the best league. It was disappointing, as far as the team goes, but for me, there wasn't much I could do.

I've witnessed thousands of superior athletes try to becomes hitters and fail at it.

The only reason we make good role models is because you guys look up to athletes and we can influence you in positive ways. But the real role models should be your parents and teachers!

We typically don't choose our athletes until about a month prior to the Games because anything can happen.

The night before I compete, I like to have steak. Meat is especially important for female athletes because it provides them with the nutrients they need to perform at their best.

Sports is a metaphor for overcoming obstacles and achieving against great odds. Athletes, in times of difficulty, can be important role models.

Too many athletes do not admit their weaknesses.

I was so afraid that the athletes wouldn't talk to me because I'm a woman.

When we reach the point where the women athletes are getting their pick of dates just as easily as the men athletes, then we've really and truly arrived. Parity at last!

American professional athletes are bilingual; they speak English and profanity.

I think the athletes respond well to me because I have been successful.

In this culture, where entertainers and athletes wield such power, it seems only right to me that they try to make their influence a good one.

Food fighters in Japan think of themselves as athletes. They have a higher recognition of the game and are constantly thinking about records. I probably won't continue for long because it puts pressure on the body. But I am at the age where I can perform my best.

I want to be like the athletes who seem stuck in time. When you see them at 50, you say they probably can still run like a champ.

Without a doubt, professional boxers are the most exploited athletes in our Nation.

Having a home away from the media glare is important to world-class athletes.