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Billie Jean King
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“I think self-awareness is probably the most important thing towards being a champion.”
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“[On tennis:] A perfect combination of violent action taking place in an atmosphere of total tranquility.”
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“... victory is fleeting, but losing is forever ...”
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“Being Number One isn't everything to me, but for those few hours on the court it's way ahead of whatever's in second place.”
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“I hate being called a homosexual because I don't feel that way. It really upsets me ... Being gay can happen in any walk of life, in any world. If you have one gay experience, does that mean you're gay? If you have one heterosexual experience, does that mean you're straight? Life doesn't work quite so cut and dried.”
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“You've got to win in sports — that's talent — but you've also got to learn how to remind everybody how you did win, and how often. That comes with experience.”
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“It's really impossible for athletes to grow up. As long as you're playing, no one will let you. On the one hand, you're a child, still playing a game. And everybody around you acts like a kid, too. But on the other hand, you're a superhuman hero that everyone dreams of being. No wonder we have such a hard time understanding who we are.”
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“The main thing is not a matter of wanting to win; the main thing is being scared to lose.”
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“The trouble with being number one in the world — at anything — is that it takes a certain mentality to attain that position in the first place, and that is something of a driving, perfectionist attitude, so that once you do achieve number one, you don't relax and enjoy it.”
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“I have often been asked whether I am a woman or an athlete. The question is absurd. Men are not asked that. I am an athlete. I am a woman.”
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“Marriage isn't a 50-50 proposition very often. It's more like 100-0 one moment and 0-100 the next.”
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“Failure is feedback.”
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“Each point I play is the now moment: the last point means nothing; the next point means nothing.”
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“Reputation is what others think about you. What's far more important is character, because that is what you think about yourself.”
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“Champions keep playing until they get it right.”
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“Champions take responsibility. When the ball is coming over the net, you can be sure I want the ball.”
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“A champion is afraid of losing. Everyone else is afraid of winning.”
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“It's about learning your craft. That's a wonderful thing — especially with today's consumerism and instant gratification. You can't buy that. It's about making decisions, corrections, choices. I don't think it's so much about becoming a tennis player. It's about becoming a person.”
Billie Jean King, U.S. champion tennis player
(1943)
Full name: Billie Jean Moffit King.