BRIAN SNYDER/REUTERS
"I did everything I wanted to. I finished
my career the way I wanted to," - Eighteen-time Olympic gold medallist
Michael Phelps calls time on his glittering career at the London Games.
JOHAN ORDONEZ/AFP/Getty Images
"I hope that this medal inspires the kids
at home to put down guns and knives and pick up a pair of trainers
instead," - Erick Barrondo, Guatemala's first-ever Olympian after winning silver in the men’s 20k race walk in London.
LUCY NICHOLSON/REUTERS
"I'm now a legend. I'm also the greatest
athlete to live," – modest Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt after retaining
his 100 and 200 metre titles in London.
Al Bello/Getty Images
"This isn't about bragging rights. This is
a lot bigger. This is about a team, an organisation being named world champions," - New
York Giants quarterback Eli Manning celebrates his second Super Bowl victory.
Lynne Sladky/AP
"It's about damn time," - Miami Heat
forward LeBron James finally secures his first NBA title.
STEFAN WERMUTH/REUTERS
"I really think a champion is defined not
by their wins but by how they can recover when they fall. I have fallen several
times. Each time I just get up and I dust myself off and I pray and I'm able to do better," – Wimbledon champion Serena Williams on her
return to tennis from a from a life-threatening illness.
Doug Pensinger/Getty Images
"It sounds cheesy, but your whole life is
for this and the reason I got into cycling as a kid was today," – Britain’s
first Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins gets emotional.
JOEL SAGET/AFP/Getty Images
"There comes a point in every man's life
when he has to say, 'Enough is enough.' For me, that time is now," – disgraced
cyclist Lance Armstrong announces he will not contest doping allegations.
AFP/AFP/Getty Images
"The evidence shows beyond any doubt that
the US Postal Service Pro Cycling Team ran the most sophisticated, professionalised
and successful doping program that sport has ever seen," - US Anti-Doping Agency chief executive Travis Tygart.
NELSON ALMEIDA/AFP/Getty Images
"People were not even mentioning us when
they were talking about the championship, but I think the most important thing
was that we always kept believing," – Three-time Formula One winner Sebastian
Vettel.
Victor Fraile/Getty Images
"I am more worried about being a good
person than being the best football player in the world. When all this is over,
what are you left with?" - Barcelona great Lionel Messi who broke Gerd
Mueller’s 40-year-old record for most goals in a calendar year.