132 Inspirational Sports Quotes From The Greatest Athletes

What Do You Say to Inspire an Athlete?

Even the most hard-working and successful athletes need a bit of encouragement in their endeavors. In fact, it is even necessary to have someone to cheer you on to reach your maximum results! And this is not just a lofty phrase—there have been studies proving the positive effects on athletes’ performance just by the right kind of helpful encouragement. So, what kind of winning motivational quotes should you choose to inspire an athlete? 

Turns out, the best way to motivate someone is to share a few helpful words. Those can be instructional, like “keep up the pace,” or motivational, like “you’re doing great.” Just a couple of phrases like these can give someone a tremendous confidence boost and spark a solid winning mood. 

There are also some things you should avoid saying if your aim is to motivate an athlete, and those are critical comments, like “you won’t win by slowing down” or saying to someone they’re near the finish line while actually, they’re far from it. These misplaced comments, instead of boosting the morale, work pretty demotivational. 

To sum it up, always aim to use positive words and positive comments on performance, or stick to one of the sports motivational quotes from our list.

Sports have always been a huge cultural part of our lives, and you can find athlete quotes dating back to Ancient times. Remember Veni, Vidi, Vici (I came, I saw, I conquered) coined by none other than Julius Caesar and Citius, Altius, Fortius (Swifter, Higher, Stronger), the official quote of the Olympic Games? Those two might be the most famous sportsmanship quotes that we know of! Heck, there might’ve never been a school Sports Day without mentioning one of them.