Sebastian Coe

Quite simply the Games are the biggest opportunity sport in this country has ever had. It is one that we must not squander.

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You hope all good athletes run on the balls of their feet. You don't want them coming down heel first. The perfect style is the foot to come down with a slight supination and on a tilt to the outside.

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I think I'm probably just an old-fashioned Tory. I don't wake up each morning trying to figure out what kind of Conservative I am; for me it's quite instinctive.

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I started daily training at the age of 14. When I was 16 years old, I was running twice a day.

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Sport is a universal language, building more bridges between people than anything else I can think of.

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I wouldn't have raced a horse. But you'll then throw back at me that Jesse Owens raced against a horse, and he's one of my heroes, so I'm not going to say it was a silly stunt. I know too much about horses. They're highly unreliable, and they've got brains the size of golf balls.

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There may be problems we still need to tease out, but we will leave no stone unturned in our bid to make London the host city.

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The London Games will be designed for the athletes and we will provide them with the very best venues and the very best conditions to pursue their sporting dreams in London.

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Since the break-up of the 1990s, Russia has not had winter sports facilities. All the winter sport venues were effectively located in countries that are no longer part of the federation. There is a strong argument for saying Sochi's legacy will be this country will have winter sports facilities it did not have before.

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I can remember the day I decided I would retire from competitive athletics as vividly as if it were yesterday.

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I joined the local athletics club when I was 12, that's what I did. I did it of my own volition.

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I still run every other day. Longer at weekends. I probably do 35 miles a week.

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My motivation to compete was always about improving one year to the next. At 34, I realised I'd never run any quicker, so why hang on? But I love running and still run along woodland trails and beaches every few days.

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I don't think I am a workaholic. I prefer to keep busy. It is better than the alternative.

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World records are only borrowed.

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I'm such an odd mix of things. My grandfather was Indian: I've got more family living in India than I do in the U.K. My old man was East London. I was brought up in Yorkshire. My great-grandfather was Irish.

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I do genuinely believe that young people who play sport at a competitive level, sensibly controlled, sensibly organised, that has to be a good thing. It will teach them to win, it will teach them to lose with dignity and magnanimity - all the things you want. It's a pretty good metaphor for life.

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I'm not sure there are enough coaches in the system that can take young talent and consistently get them into the top five in the world.

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Quotes by Sebastian Coe