The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to tak — Olympic Games

"You request my presence at the Olympic Games, and for that reason you have sent envoys. For myself, I would come for the spectacle of physical struggle, except that I would be abandoning the greater struggle for virtue."

"After erroneous reports of a pack of “wretched women” runners ruined at the 1928 Summer Games, the Olympics eliminated all women’s events that stretched beyond 200 meters. In 1967, commentators told Kathrine Switzer that her uterus would collapse if she competed in the Boston Marathon (she finished, and it did not). Women didn’t gain clearance to compete in all the track events available to men at the Olympics until 2008."

"It’s no secret that in the world of elite sports, the wage gap is much wider than it is in the general workforce, where it hovers around 20 percent. For the U.S. women’s hockey team, that reality looked bleak: They received $1,000 monthly stipends for a six-month training period leading up to the Olympics, which, with Olympic bonuses, amounts to about $20,000 every four years. “It’s a full time job,” team captain Megan Duggan tells InStyle. But like many of her colleagues, she had to take on a side-hustle, in her case coaching NCAA hockey, to make ends meet."

"And then we have the Olympics coming up, which I was instrumental in getting, also, in my first term. And who would have known that by skipping a term, I would get the Olympics? I was upset. I said, “You know, I got the Olympics to come and I won’t be president.” But it turned out, through a stroke of luck or whatever you might call it, that I’m going to be president during the World Cup and the Olympics and the 250th anniversary [of the United States Declaration of Independence]."

"Founder Pierre de Coubertin established the modern Games as the focal point for a social movement that would help make the world a better place by propagating the humanitarian philosophy of Olympism and broad educational practices."

"In the name of the athletes. In the name of all judges. In the name of all the coaches and officials. We promise to take part in these Olympic Games, respecting and abiding by the rules and in the spirit of fair play, inclusion and equality. Together we stand in solidarity and commit ourselves to sport without doping, without cheating, without any form of discrimination. We do this for the honour of our teams, in respect for the Fundamental Principles of Olympism, and to make the world a better place through sport."