Whenever there's a big national event that brings the country together - whether it's the Olympics, a royal wedding or the 'Bake Off' final - there are inevitably a few contrarian voices speaking out against it.

I always try to see the good in everything, and that gives me strength. Even when I lost in the London Olympics quarterfinals, I said to myself, 'Don't lose heart, God has his own plans.' Actually, life just goes on; you have to accept whatever challenge you face and become stronger.

I've realized the extraordinary power of sports to heal, unite and inspire. I believe the Olympics will serve as the ultimate platform to provide positive changes and I hope to inspire all of Japan through my strong showing there.

The ultimate would be to compete in a couple more Olympics, hopefully break some world records and wind up my sports career with a couple of years in the WNBA.

As a child I was very involved with sports and I knew at age 9 that I wanted to be an Olympic champion.

In sports, people reach their peak very early. You have to move on. I don't know if I will ever surpass what I did at the Olympics, but I'm still doing the work I always wanted to do.

Football, basketball, and the Olympic sports all have their problems with banned substances.

Some of the authorities would like to remove rhythmic gymnastics from the list of Olympic sports and turn it into art. I think this would be wrong, as rhythmic gymnastics is a true sport - we train around six hours per day and sometimes spend entire days in the gym.

The Olympic Games must not be an end in itself, they must be a means of creating a vast programme of physical education and sports competitions for all young people.

We live in a world where sports have the potential to bridge the gap between racism, sexism and discrimination. The 2012 Olympic Games was a great start but hopefully what these games taught us is that if women are given an opportunity on an equal playing field the possibilities for women are endless.

While football embarrassingly exposes the excesses of capitalism, the Olympic sports have been used to propagate the neoliberal mantra that success is simply a matter of hard work.

The biggest danger to the movement is that it is getting too big in sheer weight of numbers. Other sports will become more popular in terms of numbers, and everyone will want to be involved in the Olympics.

Growing up with brothers, I've always been a very competitive person and also very involved in sports. So when I was younger, whatever sport I was involved in, I wanted to go to the Olympics for that!

The Chicago Special Olympics prove a very fundamental fact, the fact that exceptional children - children with mental retardation - can be exceptional athletes, the fact that through sports they can realize their potential for growth.

I love sports - I used to play volleyball really competitively...I went to Junior Olympic qualifiers, and I've ridden horses my whole life.

There is talk that badminton may not make it as a sport in the 2020 Olympics. We must bear in mind that other sports are strongly lobbying to be included.

We all have limitations. I don't have the right genes to be an Olympic weightlifter. I don't have the right genetics to be an Olympic sprinter. Or gymnast. Sure, if I trained my whole life, perhaps I could have become fairly decent in those sports.

I do a lot of running and hiking, and I also collect stamps - space stamps and Olympics stamps.

Mary Peters. When I was having my sulky, stroppy, bad loser phase I watched her at the Olympics. Sometimes she failed but always with a smile and good grace. She taught me how to win and lose, and I have a photo taken with her in my lounge.

I'm not the athlete I was when I was training for the Olympics in '92 or when I was working out every single day. I have to live in moderation: I work out three or four days a week, and I smile while I'm working out - I really do enjoy it. I work out with my girlfriends and make it a social competition.

This Olympics is almost a little sad. It is my final Olympics. There are a lot of good memories.

I was at the Olympic Games winning medals and I still doubted my image. I doubted what I looked like. That's sad.

I've always seen the Olympics as a place where you could act out your differences on the athletic field with a sense of sportsmanship and fairness and mutual respect.

I met Jesse Owens once. He was a remarkable individual, and I have tremendous respect for what he did in the Olympics under the circumstances.