97 Quotes by Jackie Joyner-Kersee

I do not take steroids. I never have. It’s sad to me that people want to point fingers. I don’t do that. That’s not me. I wouldn’t feel like a human being.

My passion for giving is no different than yours. I give because it’s in my heart to give. I give because I was taught to give at a very early age. This is how I developed my passion for giving.

For me it’s the challenge – the challenge to try to beat myself or do better than I did in the past. I try to keep in mind not what I have accomplished but what I have to try to accomplish in the future.

Ask any athlete: We all hurt at times. I’m asking my body to go through seven different tasks. To ask it not to ache would be too much.

I was diagnosed with asthma when I was 18 during my freshman year at UCLA. I refused to accept it – and I hid it from my coaches and teammates. But ignoring my problem didn’t make it go away.

Quality training is what I do now; before it was a combination of both quality and quantity. Now I’m not trying to be a world-class athlete, I don’t need to train at that level. It’s about being fit, fit for life.

When I started competing, you had to have your coach there. Now you can be coached from a home office via Skype or video. That’s not the same as having them on the field with you.

I don’t have to be enemies with someone to be competitors with them.

I don’t think being an athlete is unfeminine. I think of it as a kind of grace.