Quotes

“In training everyone focuses on 90% physical and 10% mental, but in the races its 90% mental because there’s very little that separates us physically at the elite level”.
~Elka Graham

“With so many people saying it couldn’t be done, all it takes is an imagination.” 
~Michael Phelps

“People ask me ‘what was going through your mind in the race?’ and I don’t know. I try and …let my body do what it knows”.
~Ian Thorpe

“I wouldn’t say anything is impossible. I think that everything is possible as long as you put your mind to it and put the work and time into it”.
~Michael Phelps

“Being your best is not so much about overcoming the barriers other people place in front of you as it is about overcoming the barriers we place in front of ourselves. It has nothing to do with how many times you win or lose. It has no relation to where you finish in a race or whether you break world records. But it does have everything to do with having the vision to dream, the courage to recover from adversity and the determination never to be shifted from your goals.” 
~Kieren Perkins

“When I go out and race, I’m not trying to beat opponents, I’m trying to beat what I have done … to beat myself, basically. People find that hard to believe because we’ve had such a bias to always strive to win things. If you win something and you haven’t put everything into it, you haven’t actually achieved anything at all. When you’ve had to work hard for something and you’ve got the best you can out of yourself on that given day, that’s where you get satisfaction from.”
~Ian Thorpe

“I have been visualizing myself every night for the past four years standing on the podium having the gold placed around my neck.” 
~Megan Quann

“I concentrate on preparing to swim my race and let the other swimmers think about me, not me about them.” 
~Amanda Beard

“Before the (Olympic) trials I was doing a lot of relaxing exercises and visualization. And I think that that helped me to get a feel of what it was gonna be like when I got there. I knew that I had done everything that I could to get ready for that meet, both physically and mentally”. 
~Michael Phelps

“The water is your friend…..you don’t have to fight with water, just share the same spirit as the water, and it will help you move”. 
~Alexandr Popov

“In most sports they have a physical effect on your performance, in swimming only psychological. If you worry about what your rival is doing, you take your mind off what you are doing and so fail to concentrate on your performance.”
~Bachrach

“I can’t control what everyone else swims but if all goes well I know there are no limits.”
~Leisl Jones

“I am not going to allow myself not to perform well just because I don’t feel well. I am bulletproof to the extent that a lot of things can be thrown at me, but it’s about how much I am prepared to let them affect me”.
Ian Thorpe