"The two most difficult jobs in the world are saving the miners in Chile and taking over the men's basketball team in China." — Chinese player Wang Zhizhi. The Chinese finished winless under Bob Donewald.
"I do not have any idols. I am my own idol." — judo athlete Ilgar Mushkiyev from Azerbaijan.
"When I first got into a rowing boat, I fell into the water. But I am a good swimmer, so it was no problem." — Hamadou Djibo Issaka, who had only been in wooden fishing boats until three months ago but was in the Olympics as a rower because Niger was given a spot and had no one else.
"They are in a safe deposit box with some armed men around them." — Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, on the location of his gold medals.
"I'm completely gutted. We'll spend days, weeks, months, the rest of our lives trying to work out if we could have done more." — British rower Zac Purchase, after finishing a close second.
"There is no feeling like it. Maybe the same as the first time you hold a new baby in your arms." — Denmark rower Mads Rasmussen, on winning a gold medal.
"We could end tomorrow, and we're going to be happy for the rest of our lives." — Mike Bryan of the USA, after he and brother Bob won the men's doubles tennis gold medal at Wimbledon.
"I'm nervous to undergo an operation to fix my sight, because it is not a hindrance. I'm yet to find a doctor who would want to operate on a world record-holder." — Russian shooter Alexei Klimov.
"Some of them simply live in a fantasy world. I don't. I could imagine I look like (French actor) Alain Delon or James Bond, but I don't. I look more like a monkey." — Russian women's team handball coach Evgeny Trefilov.
"They picked me for a doping test. They simply cannot believe that such a great body can be built without any banned stuff." — Hungarian water polo player Zoltan Szecsi.
"We were holding them when they were dying. It is still a motivation for us, and they are always present for us." — Egypt soccer captain Mohamed Aboutrika, about the 74 victims of a soccer riot in February.
"I expected to do better, but the weights were too heavy." — Micronesia weightlifter Manuel Minginfel.
"I am sure that I am the first monk to be an Olympic rider, but I am not so perfect a monk and not so perfect a rider. Every morning I close my eyes and think of getting better." — Kenki Sato, Japanese equestrian athlete and Buddhist monk.
"When baby kicks, I will breathe in and breathe out and calm myself down. I'll tell the baby, 'Behave yourself and help mommy to shoot.' Luckily she understands." — Malaysia's Nur Suryani Mohd Taibi, who competed in shooting while pregnant.
"Do you think I'd tell you if they had?" — British rider Zara Phillips, when asked if she had gotten any advice from her grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, or her mother, Princess Anne.
"First of all, I have to tally up who I owe money to." — American weightlifter Sarah Robles, on the financial challenges of training for the Olympics.
"For me the meals in the UK are quite monotonous, so I wanted to eat something which is at least close to Hungarian dishes. And the closest thing was bread and butter." — Hungarian canoer Attila Vajda.
"We are not obliged to throw our president out of a helicopter." — Marco Balich, executive director of Rio de Janeiro's handover ceremony Sunday, referring to the spoof of Queen Elizabeth parachuting into the opening ceremony.
"The medal hasn't had the good effect I hoped for." — British equestrian rider Scott Brash, who had said on TV he hoped a gold medal would help him meet girls.
"It is like a love story. You can give a lot, but you get nothing. We didn't just get the medal. Whatever question you ask, I don't know what to answer. I have my eyes for crying." — Bruno Bini, French women's soccer coach after losing to Canada for the bronze medal.
"When I used to go running, I used to see all these crackheads and drug addicts. I didn't want to be like them." — Claressa Shields, a native of Flint, Mich., who became the first American woman to win a gold medal in boxing.
"We are just not right in the head. That's why we are interested in it." — Gold medalist Sergey Kirdyapkin of Russia, on being a race walker.
"Our opponents were better than us, and we must congratulate them and prepare for our next race. In the pub." — Filip Dvorak of the Czech Republic, after finishing fifth in canoeing.
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2012/08/london_2012_olympics_winning_m.htmlBest athletes names at the Olympics
Irie from Japan
Dong Dong from China
