Gymnast Quotes

When I go in to compete, whether it's gymnastics or anything else, I do my own thing. I compete with myself. ~ Shannon Miller

Sleeping Wrestler

You are a murderer
No you are not, but really a wrestler
Either way it's just the same
For from the ring of your entangled body
Clean as leather, lustful as a lily
Will nail me down
On your stout neck like a column, like a pillar of tendons
The thoughtful forehead
(In fact, it's thinking nothing)
When the forehead slowly moves and closes the heavy eyelids
Inside, a dark forest awakens
A forest of red parrots
Seven almonds and grape leaves
At the end of the forest a vine
Covers the house where two boys
Lie in each others arms: I'm one of them, you the other
In the house, melancholy and terrible anxiety
Outside the keyhole, a sunset
Dyed with the blood of the beautiful bullfighter Escamillo
Scorched by the sunset, headlong, headfirst
Falling, falling, a gymnast
If you're going to open your eyes, nows the time, wrestler ~ Mutsuo Takahashi

I know how to smile, I know how to laugh, I know how to play. But I know how to do these things only after I have fulfilled my mission. ~ Nadia Comaneci

Anybody could be as good as Nemov. Yeah, he's a great gymnast, but anyone can be that good. ~ Blaine Wilson

In the two weeks following the All-Star Game, baseball was largely upstaged by the events of the XXI Olympiad in Montreal, including Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci's seven perfect 10.0 scores, Bruce Jenner's record-setting decathlon triumph, and the five gold medals won by U.S. boxers Howard Davis Jr., Sugar Ray Leonard, Leo Randolph, and brothers Leon and Michael Spinks - the mightiest performance of any American boxing team in Olympic history. ~ Dan Epstein

That is what is marvelous about school, she realized: when you are in school, your talents are without number, and your promise is boundless. You ace a math test: you will one day work for NASA. The choir director asks you to sing a solo at the holiday concert: you are the next Mariah Carey. You score a goal, you win a poetry contest, you act in a play. And you are everything at once: actor, astronomer, gymnast, star. But at a certain point, you begin to feel your talents dropping away, like feathers from a molting bird. Cello lessons conflict with soccer practice. There aren't enough spots on the debating team. Calculus remains elusive. Until the day you realize that you cannot think of a single thing you are wonderful at. ~ Sarah Shun-lien Bynum

I pay attention to my diet to be a healthier gymnast, but I'm not obsessive over it. ~ Shawn Johnson

The Marquis de V... - whose falsetto voice and little watery eyes I have always detested - was saying to me with a wicked smile: 'Then again, the master gymnast might break his neck at any moment. What he is doing now is very dangerous, my dear, and the pleasure you take in his performance is the little frisson that danger affords you. Wouldn't it be thrilling, if his sweaty hand failed to grip the bar? The velocity acquired by his rotation about the bar would break his spine quite cleanly, and perhaps a little of the cervical matter might spurt out as far as this! It would be most sensational, and you would have a rare emotion to add to the field of your experience - for you collect emotions, don't you? What a pretty stew of terrors that man in tights stirs up in us!

'Admit that you almost wish that he will fall! Me too. Many others in the auditorium are in the same state of attention and anguish. That is the horrible instinct of a crowd confronted with a spectacle which awakens in it the ideas of lust and death. Those two agreeable companions always travel together! Take it from me that at the very same moment - see, the man is now holding on to the bar by his fingertips alone - at the very same moment, a good number of the women in these boxes are ardently lusting after that man, not so much for his beauty as for the danger he courts.'

The voice subtly changed its tone, suddenly becoming more interested. 'You have singularly pale eyes this evening, my ~ Jean Lorrain

As a competitive gymnast, my life has always been filled with challenges that would ultimately define my future. From day one, I was taught to be prepared at all costs. ~ Dominique Moceanu

I was into sports and swimming as a kid and didn't spend a whole lot of time sitting down. I was a gymnast. ~ Mads Mikkelsen

No matter how old you are now. You are never too young or too old for success or going after what you want. Here's a short list of people who accomplished great things at different ages
1) Helen Keller, at the age of 19 months, became deaf and blind. But that didn't stop her. She was the first deaf and blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree.
2) Mozart was already competent on keyboard and violin; he composed from the age of 5.
3) Shirley Temple was 6 when she became a movie star on "Bright Eyes."
4) Anne Frank was 12 when she wrote the diary of Anne Frank.
5) Magnus Carlsen became a chess Grandmaster at the age of 13.
6) Nadia Comăneci was a gymnast from Romania that scored seven perfect 10.0 and won three gold medals at the Olympics at age 14.
7) Tenzin Gyatso was formally recognized as the 14th Dalai Lama in November 1950, at the age of 15.
8) Pele, a soccer superstar, was 17 years old when he won the world cup in 1958 with Brazil.
9) Elvis was a superstar by age 19.
10) John Lennon was 20 years and Paul Mcartney was 18 when the Beatles had their first concert in 1961.
11) Jesse Owens was 22 when he won 4 gold medals in Berlin 1936.
12) Beethoven was a piano virtuoso by age 23
13) Issac Newton wrote Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica at age 24
14) Roger Bannister was 25 when he broke the 4 minute mile record
15) Albert Einstein was 26 when he wrote the theory of relativity
16) ~ Pablo

The complete novelist would come into the world with a catalog of qualities like this. He would own the concentration of a Trappist monk, the organizational ability of a Prussian field marshal, the insight into human relations of a Viennese psychologist, the discipline of a man who prints the Lord's Prayer on the head of a pin, the exquisite sense of timing of an Olympic gymnast, and by the way, a natural instinct and flair for exceptional use of language. ~ Leon Uris

Ove glares out of the window. The poser is jogging. Not that Ove is provoked by jogging. Not at all. Ove couldn't give a damn about people jogging. What he can't understand is why they have to make such a big thing of it. With those smug smiles on their faces, as if they were out there curing pulmonary emphysema. Either they walk fast or they run slowly, that's what joggers do. It's a forty-year-old man's way of telling the world that he can't do anything right. Is it really necessary to dress up as a fourteen-year-old Romanian gymnast in order to be able to do it? Or the Olympic tobogganing team? Just because one shuffles aimlessly around the block for three quarters of an hour? ~ Fredrik Backman

I don't run away from a challenge because I am afraid. Instead, I run towards it because the only way to escape fear is to trample it beneath your foot ~ Nadia Comaneci

Everyone needs a coach. It doesn't matter whether you're a basketball player, a tennis player, a gymnast or a bridge player. ~ Bill Gates

dressed like a 14 year old Romanian gymnast... ~ Fredrik Backman

It sounds funny, but the 2008 Olympics were something that just kind of happened, and I was lucky they came at a point when I was uninjured and well prepared. As a gymnast, you can't ask for much more. ~ Shawn Johnson

I grew up in Phoenix, Arizona and was a very competitive (and stressed out!) gymnast before getting into entertainment, but it was never the actual gymnastics that was my true love. I loved the performing aspect of it all. ~ Rachele Brooke Smith

Maybe she's a gymnast with superior muscle control."
"She'd have to be in Cirque de Soleil to manage this. ~ Huntley Fitzpatrick

I was a gymnast for twelve or thirteen years. Then I got into surfing and now I paddle board and hike and do whatever I can. I think it's my love of the outdoors. ~ Serinda Swan

If you want to take it up a step and aim to become a competitive gymnast, you have to be mentally strong and prepared to take on the workload of going to the gym every day, rain or shine. ~ Shannon Miller

I want to stay involved in gymnastics forever, but the Olympics really opened up doors in terms of motivational speaking. I'd like do some type of broadcasting or commentating for gymnastics events on TV, or even give my insights as a gymnast into other sports; I'm kind of a sports junkie in general. ~ Jonathan Horton

I was a gymnast when I was little, like 8, 9, 10. ~ Pamela Anderson

Allow some warm-up time each day to stimulate your creative flow. A pianist does keyboard exercises. A gymnast stretches. An artist needs to loosen up, too. It takes a few minutes to shift from the real world into a creative mode. ~ Nita Leland

Growing up I definitely looked up to Dominique Moceanu. She was my favorite gymnast and she was on that '96 Olympic team. She was always so fun to watch. I kind of wanted to model my career after hers. ~ Alicia Sacramone

One shorter woman had written 'Gymnast' and another had written 'Mareen Biologest'.
Ten bucks said that she wasn't one - those bif fake breasts would make it impossible for her to stay under the water. ~ Jessica Clare

I realize how much ballet gave me, and because of ballet, I'm known as a graceful gymnast. ~ Svetlana Boginskaya

I was enough of an acrobat and a gymnast and a dancer and everything else so that I could handle the kung fu, because it's just choreography. ~ David Carradine

I love all the attention, people noticing me. 'There's the gymnast. There she is!' ~ Gabby Douglas

I'm no perfect gymnast. I want to go out and eat junk food, or I maybe don't sleep as much as I should, or some days I'll leave the gym and think, "Maybe I should have worked a little harder. Maybe I'm not as tired as I need to be." Every day you push a little harder, eat a little better, maybe go to bed a little earlier. ~ Jonathan Horton

Holly slides off the chairlift like a gymnast, and I slide off like a sack of hammers. ~ David Mitchell

I didn't want to be a dancer. I just did it to work my way through college. But I was always an athlete and gymnast, so it came naturally. ~ Gene Kelly

Giving interviews is the most difficult thing about being a gymnast. ~ Gina Gogean

As a gymnast, you always wear spandex. Being a teenager wearing spandex? It was tough accepting how my body looked, especially if there was any weight gain. ~ Alicia Sacramone

I was a gymnast when I was younger. My parents put me in gymnastics, and I was actually only good at the floor. I was terrible at everything else, especially beam. Unfortunately, you can't be a gymnast unless you're good at all of the apparatuses, so I became a competitive cheerleader. I was just the main tumbler for my squad. ~ Josie Loren

[Alexei Nemov] has the best feel for the aesthetics of the sport. He doesn't just do a skill; he makes it look gorgeous. Some gymnasts think if their arm is bent a little it doesn't matter, but Nemov understands it matters. ~ Peter Vidmar

I love physical movement. Dance was my favorite thing, and I was a gymnast. I find that expression through movement is easier, in some ways, than expression through words. ~ Kristin Kreuk

I was a gymnast for many years before I was a dancer, so it comes in pretty handy when we do stunts. ~ Mads Mikkelsen

I was a gymnast for years. ~ Kelly Preston

It's not about winning or losing a competition, it's about beating the doubt from within yourself and knowing at the end of each day you are one step closer to your goals. ~ Jonathan Horton

Gymnastics taught me everything - life lessons, responsibility and discipline and respect. ~ Shawn Johnson

As an Olympic champion gymnast, I have always stayed involved in my sport. ~ Nadia Comaneci

A person who undertakes the study of Zen and learns concentration and meditation is like a gymnast. You become a gymnast of the mind. ~ Frederick Lenz

Definitely gymnastics, because I was a gymnast for 11 years. That's my thing. My girlfriend Betty Okino was in the 1992 Olympics and won a bronze medal. She's a gymnast. So I'm a huge fan. ~ Jaime Pressly

Take the discipline from Martial Arts, mix it with the air awareness of a gymnast, and the attitude of a breaker. Thats Tricking! ~ Armin Houman

If you've got hips, you can't be a gymnast or dancer. That ruled me out. ~ Mia Hamm

I was never invited to the White House. They invited that Olympic Russian gymnast - that little Communist, Olga Korbut. ~ Bobby Fischer

Mind you, I'm a fine one to talke. I mean, I killed myself and just look at me now: I'm a qualified pilot, I can escape from a cockpit in five metres of water and I'm halfway up a mountain with a nutty gymnast who wants to chuck herself off the edge. ~ Steve Voake

I have been curious about the mind and body for as long as I can remember. I was a gymnast, a ballet dancer, and a philosophy and physical therapy major. Following the thread of curiosity about mind and body, I took my first yoga class in 1980 and knew from the start that it would be a lifelong passion. ~ Rodney Yee

Talent alone is not enough. I believe that a really good gymnast is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration. ~ Vladislav Rastorotsky

I never even thought about being an actor. Somebody asked me if I'd like to learn the craft, and I said, 'Okay.' I was a gymnast in a show at that time, and somebody asked me afterwards one night. I performed as a gymnast for nine years, and then I did acting after that. ~ Mads Mikkelsen

The main thing for a gymnast is total concentration while competing. At such moments one has to put everything else behind. I know that other gymnasts can do so with a smile, but I can't. And I don't even try to. ~ Ludmilla Tourischeva

I will be talking with gymnasts from some of the other countries. I will be getting a feel for what they're thinking and what they're doing. It should be a really great meet. ~ Shannon Miller

I told myself after 2008 that I was done for good. But they say you can't keep a gymnast away from her sport. ~ Shawn Johnson

I'm not doing it for media attention, not doing it for sponsors, not for money. ~ Nastia Liukin

The Worst Gymnast ~ Thalia Kalkipsakis

I've still got a few moves from my days as a gymnast. ~ Laura Donnelly

My parents, Romanian immigrants, struggled to provide me a better life than the ones they had left in their homeland. They worked hard to give me every opportunity in life, and once I showed natural talent as a young gymnast, they spent every last penny on my training. ~ Dominique Moceanu

When I was younger I wanted to be a gymnast, but they have to be quite short - I was tall. ~ Tamara Ecclestone

But then - I was just following him in reverie over mountain and valley - he jumped with both feet onto the middle of my body. I shuddered with wild pain, utterly uncomprehending. Who was it? A child? A gymnast? A daredevil? A suicide? A tempter? An annihilator? ~ Franz Kafka

Howard Altmann has found a way to make language transform itself. If the elusive moment between I and Thou could speak, it might be one of his quietly amazing lines-'you ask the silence to invert itself / like a gymnast in the dark ... ' Without a trace of rhetoric, In This House reminds us of the power of poetry: to show us how to live in a world in which we are strangers. It's a thrill to come close to such an original and deeply realized art. ~ Dennis Nurkse

I don't want to be considered a gymnast anymore. ~ Mitch Gaylord

Yesterday, here in the middle of the City, I saw a wolf turn into a Russian ex-gymnast and hand over a business card that read YOUR OWN PERSONAL TRANSHUMAN SECURITY WHORE! STERILIZED INNARDS! ACCEPTS ALL CREDIT CARDS to a large man who had trained attack cancers on his face and possessed seventy-five indentured Komodo Dragons instead of legs. And they had sex. Right in front of me. And six of the Komodo Dragons spat napalm on my new shoes. ~ Warren Ellis

First, don't cry. That's the worst thing a gymnast can do in training, because it can ruin your concentration and lead to injury. Second, always place the highest demands of yourself in the sport. ~ Rozalia Galiyeva