Michael Johnson

“All my life I believed I became an athlete through my own determination, but it's impossible to think that being descended from slaves hasn't left an imprint through the generations.”

“All my life I believed I became an athlete through my own determination, but it's impossible to think that being descended from slaves hasn't left an imprint through the generations. Difficult as it was to hear, slavery has benefited descendants like me - I believe there is a superior athletic gene in us.”

“As an athlete, I'd average four hours a day. It doesn't sound like a lot when some people say they're training for 10 hours, but theirs includes lunch, massage and breaks. My four hours was packed with work.”

“The only one who can beat me is me.”

“There's a complete difference between training for a specific event and goal and just training.”

“They think because I'm small, they can do what they want to do to me. But I'm not weak. If I lower my shoulder and they lower they're shoulder, they're going to go down.”

“I had already been into my professional career for six years and had not won an individual gold medal at the Olympics. There was a tremendous amount of pressure going into 1996 to get it done.”

“Difficult as it was to hear, slavery has benefited descendants like me - I believe there is a superior athletic gene in us.”

“One of the main techniques I used was focusing on the goal and visualising myself competing in the race before the race started.”

“Rivalries don't necessarily mean races being close at major championships. I had a rivalry with Butch Reynolds for many years. I won all the races, but Butch was the world record holder before I came into the sport, he was extremely talented and he was the only other man running 43 seconds.”

“As an athlete, I was never really comfortable with being a celebrity.”

“I've had to learn that not everybody does things my way. But I do expect the absolute best of everyone around me, and I'm disappointed when people don't expect that of themselves.”

“You can't control what the other athlete is going to do; you can't control anything except for your competition and how you execute the race or how you execute the task.”

“I always wanted to be a sprinter.”

“I don't always do a lot of predicting, but, when I get a really strong feeling about something, I will tell people.”

“Life is often compared to a marathon, but I think it is more like being a sprinter; long stretches of hard work punctuated by brief moments in which we are given the opportunity to perform at our best.”

“I work hard to improve myself as a person - as a father, as a husband, as a manager. I'm always on that mission.”

“Opting for gold shoes could have been considered downright cocky, but I was confident and never doubted my ability to deliver gold medals to match my shimmering footwear.”

“The mind is absolutely instrumental in achieving results, even for athletes. Sports psychology is a very small part, but it's extremely important when you're winning and losing races by hundredths and even thousandths of a second.”

“They don't give you gold medals for beating somebody. They give you gold medals for beating everybody.”