70 Gymnastics Quotes that Will Make You Want to Flip
May 11, 2022 6:00 AM EST
Soak up some inspiration through these gymnastics quotes from some of the world’s best gymnasts.
Gymnastics is a sport that awes many people.
Young children take to the gyms in hopes of being able to do what they see the gymnastics stars doing in competitions like the Olympics.
But what the well-trained gymnastics athletes make look so easy is anything but.
Gymnasts are incredible athletes who have both physical and mental strength.
There are many lessons that we can learn from them; whether or not we want to follow in their footsteps.
Enjoy and soak in the wisdom from these gymnastics quotes and sayings.
Don’t forget to also check out these Simone Biles quotes from the most decorated American gymnast ever.
Check out our most popular quote article, a list of short inspirational quotes for daily inspiration.
Check out our inspirational quotes category page for more inspirational life quotes.
Inspirational Gymnastics Quotes and Sayings
1. “Set your goals, follow your dreams, listen to your heart, and don’t let anything stand in your way.” – Brandy Johnson
2. “Wake up every day knowing that today is a new day and only you can determine the outcome of that day. So dream big, accept the challenge, and never look back.” – Alicia Sacramone
3. “Each of us has a fire in our hearts for something. It’s our goal in life to find it and keep it lit.” — Mary Lou Retton
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4. “Don’t look at the big picture as the only achievement. Start with set, smart goals and work up to something bigger.” – Jordyn Wieber
5. “If you’re following your dreams, you’re doing something you love and that you believe in yourself for.” – McKayla Maroney
6. “Jump off the beam, flip off the bars, follow your dreams, and reach for the stars.” – Nadia Comaneci
7. “There will be mistakes and there will falter. There will be things that are not a part of your plan. See the challenges in your life and accept them and embrace them.” – Dominique Dawes
8. “I just tell people to listen to your heart. Anything is possible if you are doing something you love.” – Alicia Sacramone
9. “To be a gymnast, you must have the strength to hold on and the courage to let go.” – Madison Kocian
10. “The only risk is not taking the risk. You’ve got to take that step.” – Jaycie Phelps
Motivational Gymnastics Quotes About Training and Competing
11. “Practice as if its competition, but compete as if its practice.” – Peter Vidmar
12. “The one day you don’t go into practice and use that day to the fullest is the one day someone is going to beat you.” – Blaine Wilson
13. “I’ve learned how to stay humble. I don’t want to get in over my head because when you do that it takes you off your game.” – Gabby Douglas
14. “One of the things about my sport that’s important is consistency – being able to do your routines consistently and training consistently. If you change it up or try to make everything more intense because the Olympics is coming up, you tend to put too much pressure on your mind and your body.” – Jonathan Horton
15. “I don’t think my natural talent is much different from the other gymnasts. It is a matter of how I train and how I think about my training. I also give a lot of thought to my routines.” – Kohei Uchimura
16. “Working hard becomes a habit, a serious kind of fun. You get self-satisfaction from pushing yourself to the limit, knowing that all the effort is going to pay off.” – Mary Lou Retton
17. “Trust in your training, and make it happen.” – Peter Vidmar
18. “Don’t practice until you get it right, practice until you can’t get it wrong.” — McKayla Maroney
19. “Part of being a good gymnast is being very disciplined – you have to know how to train right, eat right, sleep right.” – Jonathan Horton
20. “The main thing for a gymnast is total concentration while competing. At such moments one has to put everything else behind.” – Ludmilla Tourischeva
21. “Practice like you have never won. Perform like you have never lost.” — Kyla Ross
22. “When you are on the podium nobody is asking you if you are 15 or 30 years old. What matters is who can do great gymnastics.” – Oksana Chusovitina
Best Gymnastics Quotes About Personal Development
23. “Gymnastics has made me strong. I feel like it broke me down to my lowest point, but at the same time, it has given me the greatest strength anyone could ask for.” – Shawn Johnson
24. “Gold medals aren’t really made of gold. They’re made of sweat, determination, and a hard-to-find alloy called guts.” – Dan Gable
25. “After thorough reflection, I realized that my desire to achieve my goals in this sport outweighed my self-doubt. This perseverance has helped me to be successful not only in gymnastics but in my non-athletic life as well.” – Jonathan Horton
26. “Gymnastics, for me, gave me a lot of self-pride: that drive to want to be great at something for myself.” – Amanda Borden
27. “I am who I am today because of a lot of the things I’ve learned in gymnastics.” – Katelyn Ohashi
28. “As much time as you put into it, that’s what your achievements are going to be when you come out of it.” – Mary Lou Retton
29. “As a competitor, you have to learn pretty quickly how to deal with pressure.” – Mitch Gaylord
30. “Staying humble has always been really important to me, and always being proud of what you’re representing.” – Jordyn Wieber
31. “I learned to take those experiences that were difficult in my life and in the adversity that I had overcome to use it for a positive change.” – Dominique Moceanu
32. “Don’t set your goals to be a star. Set your goals to be the best that you can be and go from there.” – Dominique Dawes
33. “All of my fans gave me confidence and reassurance that I was not just some little girl who was good at gymnastics, but that I could compete and fight for a spot in the Olympics.” – Maria Filatov
34. “Gymnastics taught me everything – life lessons, responsibility and discipline, and respect.” – Shawn Johnson
35. “Don’t be afraid if things seem difficult in the beginning. That’s only the initial impression. The important thing is not to retreat; you have to master yourself.” – Olga Korbut
36. “Competing in gymnastics is the greatest reminder of being alive as a human being.” – Raj Bhavsar
37. “I’ve learned that you don’t have to win first place to win.” – Kim Zmeskal
Gymnastics Quotes About Perseverance
38. “It’s important to push yourself further than you think you can go each and every day – as that is what separates the good from the great.” – Kerri Strug
39. “Everyone gets scared, and everyone falls. The key is to get right back up and try again.” – Shannon Miller
40. “There’s mornings when my body aches or my mind is just not with it. But that’s part of being an athlete and accomplishing a goal that seems unattainable. You have to find your motivation, what inspires you.” – Jonathan Horton
41. “Never give up and always keep fighting, because though times may be tough, the sacrifices do pay off, so just keep pushing towards your dream and just love it at the same time and enjoy it.” – Gabby Douglas
42. “You have to remember that the hard days are what make you stronger. The bad days make you realize what a good day is. If you never had any bad days, you would never have that sense of accomplishment!” – Aly Raisman
43. “Go into the sport because you have fun doing it, not because of ‘what ifs’ and dreams of gold medals. That way, no matter what happens, you win.” – Shannon Miller
44. “Talent alone is not enough. I believe that a really good gymnast is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration.” – Vladislav Rastorotsky
45. “I would tell any girl who has a dream like this to just do whatever it takes to make it, because, in the end, it’s definitely worth it.” – Phoebe Mills
46. “We can push ourselves further. We always have more to give.” – Simone Biles
47. “Being great at your sport has nothing to do with trophies or awards. It has everything to do with the decision to relentlessly chase more progress every day.” — Shawn Johnson
48. “Hard work is always hard work, for young gymnasts and old gymnasts. Whoever can handle this will be a champion.” – Svetlana Boginskaya
49. “You can’t just sit there and wait for people to give you that golden dream. You’ve got to get out there and make it happen for yourself.” — Kyla Ross
50. “In Gymnastics, there is no such thing as an overnight success.” – Laurie Hernandez
Gymnastics Quotes For Gymnasts and Coaches
51. “Everything is about your movements and precision and timing, which is what gymnastics is about.” — Shawn Johnson
52. We always say at our gym, if you lose the nerves, you lose the sport.” – Shawn Johnson
53. If you dream and you allow yourself to dream you can do anything.” – Clara Hughes
54. “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
55. “You don’t drown by falling in the water, you drown by staying there.” – Edwin Louis Cole
56. “Champions aren’t made in the gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them — a desire, a dream, a vision.” – Muhammad Ali
57. “Gymnastics demands so much of our time” – Amanda Borden
58. “I love gymnastics because it has no citizenship. However, it has its own Universal language that any child can understand no matter where they live.” – Maria Filatov
59. “If there has not been such a thing as gymnastics, I would have had to invent it because I feel at one with the sport.” – Olga Korbut
60. “The first time I come to the gym I told my coach I would like to become an Olympic Champion.” – Svetlana Boguinskaia
Gymnastics Quotes To Inspire Aspiring Gymnasts
61. “I started from zero and went back to the basics in gymnastics.” — Shawn Johnson
62 “I did gymnastics when I was growing up and to this day I can still do the splits.” — Kristin Kreuk
63.”I know gymnastics. It’s always been a subjective appreciation.” — Bela Karolyi
64. “It might have been easier to retire, to say my knee couldn’t handle it and let that be that. At the same time, the prospect of not being able to compete in gymnastics anymore was heartbreaking.” — Shawn Johnson
65. “Gymnastics is not only a good thing to live by, but it is important to understand how it does help you in life.” — Shawn Johnson
66. “When I go in to compete, whether it’s gymnastics or anything else, I do my own thing. I compete with myself.” — Shannon Miller
67. “Strength and conditioning are the keys to good performance and longevity in gymnastics.” — Suzanne Yoculan
68. “In gymnastics, you have to be perfect every step along the way” — Shannon Miller
69. “It’s a rare challenge, both for the audience and an actor, to take part in something with this level of intelligence and wit. You have to really enjoy it. It’s a form of mental and physical gymnastics.” — Benedict Cumberbatch
70. “My earliest memory was watching gymnastics on live TV and wanting to do what the ‘big girls’ did.” – Laurie Hernandez
What did you learn from these Gymnastics quotes?
Words like determination, hard work, and motivation were used in many of these quotes.
The same principles that help to create successful gymnasts are the same principles that can be used to help people succeed in life and business.
Many of the same qualities that are used to win gold medals and trophies will also help you to succeed in other areas as well.
But as Shannon Miller said in her quote, it’s important to have fun while you’re doing it.
Determination and motivation can carry you far, but if you’re not enjoying yourself, then what’s the point.
Find what you enjoy and then work hard to accomplish it.
What’s your biggest takeaway from these Gymnastics quotes and sayings?
Do you have any other favorite quotes to add?
Let us know in the comment section below.