These swimming quotes can be used to fuel the passion of eager young swimmers. They include quotes for swimmers that want to learn about the mindset of Olympic champions, and quotes for those looking for balance in and out of the pool.
Need motivation for training? We’ve collected training quotes for swimmers too.
As providers of swim school software, we are excited to watch the next generation of swimmers succeed and meet their goals.
For many young athletes, an important part of knowing where you’re going is understanding how other’s have arrived there. That’s why we’ve compiled a list to capture the knowledge and experience from some of history’s greatest swimmers.
We hope you enjoy these swimming quotes and share them with young swimmers and swimming coaches alike!
Motivational swimming quotes about excellence
1) “Great things never come from comfort zones.” – Penny Oleksiak
2) “I want to test my maximum and see how much I can do. And I want to change the world of swimming.” – Michael Phelps
3) “It’s not who’s put up the fastest time in the world that year, or who’s put up the fastest time in the previous four years, but who can get their hand on the wall first today.” – Nathan Adrian
4) “You are always racing against the other swimmers, but I always try to just focus on what I’m doing and how I want to swim my races.” – Katie Ledecky
5) “Peak performance is meditation in motion.” – Greg Louganis
6) “If you’re scared to lose rather than excited to win, then that’s the wrong way to approach a race.” – Cate Campbell
7) “It’s easy to forget when you’re an elite athlete that everyone else gets nervous as well. Even the best people in the world, at whatever they do, they’re still nervous.” – Leisl Jones
8) “My whole swimming career was about training to beat Michael Phelps in any race I possibly could.” – Chad le Clos
9) “I knew I had all kinds of work to do and I left no stone unturned. But on the day I actually got to the Olympics there was this incredible, overwhelming, feeling that someone has to win this race and why not me?” – Mark Tewksbury
10) “In Athens I was 17 and I didn’t have any expectations. I was just swimming fast and racing everybody.” – Laure Manaudou
11) “I concentrate on preparing to swim my race and let the other swimmers think about me, not me about them.” – Amanda Beard
12) “The best swimmers are the ones that almost don’t try the most… It’s just about relaxing and enjoying it.” – Cate Campbell
13) “I’m trying to do the best I can. I’m not concerned with tomorrow, but with what goes on today.” – Mark Spitz
14) “Tonight was not about winning, it was about focusing on myself and what I was aiming to do. It’s the reason why I was able to swim so well.” – Libby Lenton
15) “In training everyone focuses on 90% physical and 10% mental, but in the races its 90% mental because there’s very little that separates us physically at the elite level.” – Elka Graham
16) “It’s unbelievable, I’m swimming so fast. I went in with no expectations. I just went out hoping to get a personal best. I went out there with a smile, just to have fun and see what would happen.” – Jade Edmistone
17) “Traveling to swimming meets took me beyond my small-town existence, gave me a hint of the exciting world outside of my own home.” – Esther Williams
18) “Never worry about what anyone else is doing…Just swim your own race.” – Dara Torres
Swimming quotes about mindset
19) “Swimming is simply moving meditation.” – Cesar Nikko Caharian
20) “I know I’ve made huge gains in my confidence and knowing more about my racing and myself as a person. That has made me a better athlete.” – Libby Lenton
21) “People ask me ‘what was going through your mind in the race?’ and I don’t know. I try and let my body do what it knows.” – Ian Thorpe
22) “We’ve seen, time and again, when people focus on the outcome rather than what needs to be done to achieve a desirable result, then the wheels fall off.” – Cate Campbell
23) “Enjoy the journey, enjoy every moment, and quit worrying about winning and losing.” – Matt Biondi
24) “When you’re racing you can’t hear anyone and you’re just in your head. It’s pretty cool to know that everything is just you and it’s just a mental game.” – Penny Oleksiak
25) “The water is your friend…..you don’t have to fight with water, just share the same spirit as the water, and it will help you move.” – Alexandr Popov
26) “I can’t control what everyone else swims but if all goes well I know there are no limits.” – Leisl Jones
27) “I’ve learned so much over the last few years, I’ve had ups and downs but I feel more motivated than ever to be the best person and athlete I can be.” – Penny Oleksiak
28) “Getting to the Olympics was, has always been, my swimming dream since I was 8 or 9 years old. You know, right after I started swimming it was, ‘I want to make an Olympic team. That’s where I want to be.'” – Eric Shanteau
29) “The most important lesson I’ve learned from sports is how to be not only a gracious winner, but a good loser as well. Not everyone wins all the time, as a matter of fact, no one wins all the time. Winning is the easy part, losing is really tough. But, you learn more from one loss than you do from a million wins. You learn a lot about sportsmanship.” – Amy Van Dyken
30) “I’ve swum for my country, I’ve swum for my coaches and my schools and my teams. I decided this time I was going to swim for myself.” – Janet Evans
31) “Being your best is not so much about overcoming the barriers other people place in front of you as it is about overcoming the barriers we place in front of ourselves…But it does have everything to do with having the vision to dream, the courage to recover from adversity and the determination never to be shifted from your goal.” – Kieran Perkins
32) “Swimming is one of the hardest sports.” – Stephanie Rice
Quotes about the love of swimming
33) “Swimming is normal for me. I’m relaxed. I’m comfortable, and I know my surroundings. It’s my home.” – Michael Phelps
34) “I’ve enjoyed training again, I’ve enjoyed pushing myself in the pool and I’ll keep on swimming until I feel I cannot get any more out of myself.” – Ian Thorpe
35) “Swimming is my passion and something that I love.” – Natalie du Toit
36) “I want people to see the passion I have for swimming and become more involved in the sport.” – Ryan Lochte
37) “A huge part of swimming for me is I love it, and it is so much fun.” – Missy Franklin
38) “Swimming is great because there are levels of goals. First, when I was four, it was making it to the other end and overcoming the fear of standing up in front of everybody at a swim meet because I was such a shy kid.” – Summer Sanders
39) “I can’t imagine what I would be doing if I wasn’t swimming. It is what I want to do now; it is what I want to do in the foreseeable future, and that is what I’m focusing on.” – Cate Campbell
40) “Enjoy swimming for swimming’s sake. We have to spend far too much time in the water to not enjoy the process of challenging yourself of moving through the water.” – Jeff Rouse
41) “It’s a beautiful thing, diving into the cool crisp water and then just sort of being able to pull your body through the water and the water opening up for you.” – Dawn Fraser
42) “Mainly, I like to have fun. Swimming is all about having fun, and I am a firm believer that you should keep swimming as long as you are having fun, but I can say that it becomes much more fun as you get older and learn more about the sport, life, and especially more about yourself.” – Scott Goldblatt
Motivational swimming quotes about lifestyle and balance
43) “Remember to do the things you enjoy away from swimming, regularly.” – Ian Thorpe
44) “I always tell people, I’m a better swimmer because I’m a mom and a better mom because I’m swimmer.” – Amanda Beard
45) “Being happy outside the pool means fast swimming in the pool.” – Eric Shanteau
46) “Believe in yourself, not only in swimming, but in life itself. You always have to have fun. You have to have an open mind. If you’re not enjoying it, don’t do it. Life’s too short.” – Debbie Meyer
47) “If you want me to swim fast, you have to let me enjoy my life.” – Amanda Beard
48) “Make yourself an example, achieve it, but don’t hurt anyone on the way up.” – Dawn Fraser
Quotes about swimming for non-swimmers
49) “The brilliant thing about swimming is that, while you’re doing it, there’s nothing else you could be getting on with, like the ironing or sorting out the children. My mind goes into free-float mode; some of the best ideas for plots come into my head while I’m ploughing up and down the pool.” – Sophie Hannah
50) “Whether being battered by the surf or swimming through the gentle undulating surface of lakes, I find inspiration in the movement of water. Sometimes I think about the journey the water has traveled, reconnecting me to the larger cycles of nature.” – Janet Echelman
51) “No event in strongman competitions lasts longer than 40 seconds, so by swimming in fast bursts, my body is conditioned for the level of speed and power it needs.” – Eddie Hall
52) “In most sports they have a physical effect on your performance, in swimming only psychological. If you worry about what your rival is doing, you take your mind off what you are doing and so fail to concentrate on your performance.” – Louis Fabian Bachrach
Swimmer quotes about training and achievement
53) “Excellence eliminates doubt.” – Anne Ottenbrite
54) “The things you learn from sports – setting goals, being part of a team, confidence – that’s invaluable. It’s not about trophies and ribbons. It’s about being on time for practice, accepting challenges.” – Summer Sanders
55) “Without goals, training has no direction.” – Natalie Coughlin
56) “Persistence can change failure into extraordinary achievement.” – Matt Biondi
57) “While we are here we should set goals and achieve them, make the best of things, make others feel good about themselves, and be happy with what we are and what we are doing.” – Janet Evans
58) “There are days when I don’t feel motivated and I don’t want to get up to go to practice. I’m a very goal-oriented person, so I set short-term goals and try to reach those goals. And when I have those days, I think about those goals, and it gets me motivated.” – Dara Torres
59) “I try to make the good days great and take something positive from the days I’m not feeling good – work on technique or something like that.” – Katie Ledecky
60) “I am a firm believer that you don’t achieve greatness on your own. There is always someone there to lend a hand.” – Greg Louganis
61) “The reason swimming is one of the hardest sports is because you have to be in the pool by yourself every day, making that sacrifice. There’s no time to do anything else.” – Chad le Clos
62) “Swimming took up so much of my faculties, and for so long, I was willing to give it everything.” – Aaron Peirsol
63) “You don’t want to line up on the blocks and know you have not done everything you possibly can.” – Stephanie Rice
If you enjoyed these swimming quotes, you may also enjoy our 43 motivational quotes from female athletes. Did we miss any motivational swimming quotes? Feel free to send them our way on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. We’d love to hear from you!
