125 Inspirational Sports Quotes to Fire You Up on Game Day

Are you an athlete or coach? Hype yourself up with these sports quotes.

It doesn't matter if you're a competitive athlete who plays a sport, a coach or someone that's committed to training consistently in the gym: we can all lose motivation from time to time. You can be the most intrinsically motivated individual in the world, but you're still a human at the end of the day. How do you show up for training on the days you don't want to?

Reading inspirational sports quotes is a great way to remind yourself of why you started. Aside from that, reading quotes can motivate us in both tough moments, and moments of triumph. Whether you're currently on a high and looking to light a fire within you, or you're feeling low on motivation and need a boost, we've got 125 sports quotes listed below.

From the best sports quotes by your favorite professional athletes, to sweet and short sports quotes, all the way to motivational quotes for coaches and athletes – there's something below that will remind you of your inner warrior. Read this list and you'll feel ready to show up for both your team and most importantly – yourself!

Related: 50 Vince Lombardi Quotes to Inspire You on Super Bowl Sunday—and Every Day

125 Best Sports Quotes

1. "You've got to be confident when you're competing. You've got to be a beast." –Gabby Douglas

2. "I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed." –Michael Jordan

3. "Winners never quit and quitters never win." –Vince Lombardi

4. "A trophy carries dust. Memories last forever." –Mary Lou Retten

5. "You are never really playing an opponent. You are playing yourself, your own highest standards, and when you reach your limits, that is real joy." –Arthur Ashe

6. "You control your own wins and losses." –Maria Sharapova

7. "My motto was always to keep swinging. Whether I was in a slump or feeling badly or having trouble off the field, the only thing to do was keep swinging." –Hank Aaron

8. "I don’t count my situps. I only start counting once it starts hurting." –Muhammad Ali

9. "You must not only have competitiveness but ability, regardless of the circumstance you face, to never quit."–Abby Wambach

10. "You’re playing a game, whether it’s Little League or Game 7 of the World Series. It’s impossible to do well unless you’re having a good time. People talk about pressure. Yeah, there’s pressure. But I just look at it as fun." –Derek Jeter

11. "Do you know what my favorite part of the game is? The opportunity to play." –Mike Singletary

12. "It's not the will to win that matters – everyone has that. It's the will to prepare to win that matters." –Paul "Bear" Bryant

13. "I’d rather regret the risks that didn’t work out than the chances I didn’t take at all." –Simone Biles

14. "Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard." –Tim Notke

15. "You miss 100 percent of the shots you don't take." –Wayne Gretzky

Inspirational Sports Quotes

16. "Never let your head hang down. Never give up and sit down and grieve. Find another way." –Satchel Paige

17. "Don't be afraid of failure. This is the way to succeed." –LeBron James

18. "I believe in the impossible because no one else does." –Florence Griffith Joyner

19. "I’ve worked too hard and too long to let anything stand in the way of my goals. I will not let my teammates down, and I will not let myself down." –Mia Hamm

20. "Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths.” –Arnold Schwarzenegger

21. "Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually, it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever." –Lance Armstrong

22. "The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a man's determination." –Tommy Lasorda

23. "If something stands between you and your success, move it. Never be denied." –Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson

24. "The more difficult the victory, the greater the happiness in winning." –Pele

25. "Just believe in yourself. Even if you don’t pretend that you do and, and some point, you will." –Venus Williams

26. "Hard days are the best because that's when champions are made." –Gabby Douglas

27. "Every champion was once a contender that refused to give up." –Rocky Balboa

28. "One thing about championship teams is that they’re resilient. No matter what is thrown at them, no matter how deep the hole, they find a way to bounce back and overcome adversity." –Nick Saban

29. "Don't quit. Suffer now, and live the rest of your life as a champion." –Muhammad Ali

30. "One man can be a crucial ingredient on a team, but one man cannot make a team." –Kareem Abdul-Jabaar

Motivational Quotes for Athletes

31. "Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they’ve got a second." –William James

32. "True champions aren't always the ones that win, but the ones with the most guts." –Mia Hamm

33. "One man practicing sportsmanship is better than 50 men preaching it." –Knute Rockne

34. "If you can't outplay them, outwork them." –Ben Hogan

35. "Train hard, turn up, run your best and the rest will take care of itself." –Usain Bolt

36. "Never say never because limits, like fears, are often just illusions." –Michael Jordan

Related: MVP of Life! These 50 Inspirational Michael Jordan Quotes Prove He's the GOAT

37. "Passion first, and everything else will fall into place." –Holly Holm

38. "Without self-discipline, success is impossible, period." –Lou Holtz

39. "I really think a champion is defined not by their wins, but how they recover when they fall." –Serena Williams

40. "It's hard to beat a person who never gives up." –Babe Ruth

41. "A champion is simply someone who did not give up when they wanted to." –Tom Landry

42. "Every time I step on the field, I’m going to give my whole heart, regardless of the score." –Tim Tebow

43. "Never let your head hang down. Never give up and sit down and grieve. Find another way." –Satchel Paige

44. "The most rewarding things you do in life are often the ones that look like they cannot be done." –Arnold Palmer

45. "Somewhere behind the athlete you’ve become and the hours of practice and the coaches who have pushed you is a little girl who fell in love with the game and never looked back…play for her." –Mia Hamm

Famous Sports Quotes

46. "The only way to prove that you're good at a sport is to lose." –Ernie Banks

47. "I always felt that my greatest asset was not my physical ability, it was my mental ability." –Bruce Jenner

48. Most people give up just when they’re about to achieve success. They quit on the one-yard line. They give up at the last minute of the game one foot from a winning touchdown." –Ross Perot

49. "Make sure your worst enemy doesn’t live between your own two ears." –Laird Hamilton

50. "Sports teaches you character, it teaches you to play by the rules, it teaches you what it feels like to win and lose – it teaches you about life." –Billie Jean King

51. "You'll never know what you're capable of until you take that first step and just go for it." –Natasha Hastings

52. "What makes something special is not just what you have to gain, but what you feel there is to lose." –Andre Agassi

53. "How you respond to the challenge in the second half will determine what you become after the game, whether you are a winner or a loser." –Lou Holtz

54. "Don't wait for opportunity. Create it." –Unknown

55. "Most talented players don’t always succeed. Some don’t even make the team. It’s more what’s inside." –Brett Favre

56. "Obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it or work around it." –Michael Jordan

57. "Victory is in having done your best. If you've done your best, you've won." –Billy Bowerman

58. "Great results never came from comfort zones." –Unknown

59. "Champions keep playing until they get it right." –Billie Jean King

Coaching Sports Quotes

60. "I absolutely believe that people, unless coached, never reach their maximum capabilities." –Bob Nardelli

61. "A coach is someone who sees beyond your limits and guides you to greatness!" –Michael Jordan

62. "A good coach will make his players see what they can be rather than what they are." –Ara Parseghian

63. "A great coach tells you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear." –Sagi Kalev

64. "Leadership is a matter of having people look at you and gain confidence...if you're in control, they're in control." –Tom Landry

65. "Players respond to coaches who really have their best interest at heart." –Mike Singletary

66. "A good coach can change a game. A great coach can change a life." –John Wooden

67. "You get the best effort from others not by lighting a fire beneath them, but by building a fire within." –Bob Nelson

68. "All coaching is, taking a player where he can't take himself." –Bill McCartney

69. "It is not what the coach knows; it is what his players have learned." –Unknown

70. "You don't demand respect, you earn it." –Steve Seidler

71. "Adversity is an opportunity for heroism." –Marv Levy

72. "A coach is someone who tells you what you don't want to hear, who has you see what you don't want to see, so you can be who you always known you could be." –Tom Landry

73. "A coach will impact more people in one year than the average person will in an entire lifetime." –Billy Graham

74. "Coaching is unlocking a person's potential to maximize their growth." –John Whitmore

75. "Behind every fearless player is a fearless coach who refused to let them be anything but the best they could be." –Unknown

Sports Training Quotes

76. "Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will." –Mahatma Ghandi

77. "If you want something you’ve never had, you must be willing to do something you’ve never done." –Thomas Jefferson

78. "Dead last finish is greater than did not finish, which trumps did not start." –Unknown

79. "Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway." –Earl Nightingale

80. "The body achieves what the mind believes." –Unknown

81. "Continuous effort – not strength or intelligence – is the key to unlocking our potential." –Winston Churchill

82. "Take care of your body. It’s the only place you have to live." –Jim Rohn

83. "Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going." –Jim Ryun

84. "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act but a habit." –Aristotle

85. "Your body can stand almost anything. It’s your mind that you have to convince." –Andrew Murphy

86. "Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it." –Lou Holtz

87. "Rome wasn’t built in a day, but they worked on it every single day." –Unknown

88. "When you hit failure, your workout has just begun." –Ronnie Coleman

89. "The mind is the most important part of achieving any fitness goal. Mental change always comes before physical change." –Matt McGorry

90. "The secret of getting ahead is getting started." –Mark Twain

Related: 70 Kobe Bryant Quotes to Inspire You to Channel That 'Mamba Mentality' and Be the Best You Can Be

Tough Quotes for Sports

91. "You are not defeated when you lose, you are defeated when you quit." –Paulo Coelho

92. "Nothing will work unless you do." –John Wooden

93. "If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced." –Vincent Van Gogh

94. "That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do; not that the nature of the thing itself is changed, but that our power to do is increased." –Heber Grant

95. "Being uncomfortable is the life blood of toughness." –Bo Hanson

96. "Greatness isn't born, it's grown." –Malcolm Gladwell

97. "The game is 90% mental, the other half is physical." –Yogi Berra

98. "Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome." –Arthur Ashe

99. "I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions." –Stephen Covey

100. "Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm." –Winston Churchill

101. "Champions have the skill and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill." –Muhammad Ali

102. "Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it." –Lou Holtz

103. "But failure has to be an option in art and in exploration — because it’s a leap of faith. And no important endeavor that required innovation was done without risk. You have to be willing to take those risks." –James Cameron

104. "Concentration and mental toughness are the margins of victory." –Bill Russell

105. "It ain’t about how hard you hit; it’s about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward." –Rocky Balboa

Short Sports Quotes

106. "You never lose until you quit trying." –Mike Ditka

107. "The winners in life think constantly in terms of I can, I will, and I am." –Denis Waitley

108. "If you train hard, you'll not only be hard, but you'll be hard to beat." –Herschel Walker

109. "Adversity causes some men to break; others to break records." –William Arthur Ward

110. "Don't look back. Something might be gaining on you." –Satchel Paige

111. "It is not the size of the man, but the size of his heart that matters." –Evander Holyfield

112. "Today I will do what others won't, so tomorrow I can accomplish what others can't." –Jerry Rice

113. "I've failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed." –Michael Jordan

114. "Success isn't owned, it's leased. And rent is due every day." –J.J. Watt

115. "Never limit yourself, never be satisfied, and smile…it’s free!" –Jennie Finch

116. "I've learned that something constructive comes from every defeat." –Tom Landry

117. "No matter the circumstances you may be going through, just push through it." –Ray Lewis

118. "To be a champ you have to believe in yourself when no one else will." –Sugar Ray Robinson

119. "Overpower. Overtake. Overcome." –Serena Williams

120. "I figure practice puts your brains in your muscles." –Sam Snead

121. "I learned that if you want to make it bad enough, no matter how bad it is, you can make it." –Gale Sayers

122. "Self-praise is for losers. Be a winner. Stand for something. Always have class, and be humble." –John Madden

123. "I think self-awareness is probably the most important thing towards being a champion." –Billie Jean King

124. "Excellence is not a singular act but a habit. You are what you do repeatedly." –Shaquille O'Neal

125. "Believe me, the reward is not so great without the struggle." –Wilma Rudolph

Next up, What's All the Racket About Pickleball? Everything You Need to Know About the Growing Sport