Memorable quotes from London Olympics(Nikos)

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Spain's synchronised swimming coach Ana Tarres describes the challenges in competing against long-time rival Russia, who took the team gold while the Spaniards

settled for bronze.

"I saw the board with number 31 on it and thought my brother had got a penalty. I thought 'What an idiot Alistair, you've got a penalty'. Then I looked at my arm and

realised I was number 31."

British men's triathlon bronze medallist Jonathan Brownlee describes his reaction to a 15-second penalty for getting on his bike too early. His brother Alistair took the gold.

"It's weird, some of the rules. I was coming in a while ago and I had my skipping rope in my bag and they said I can't bring it in. I was like, 'Why?'"

Jamaica's Usain Bolt says he plans to sneak a skipping rope into the Olympic stadium after being stopped from carrying one into Sunday's 100 metres final.

"There are little cats and lions but in the Olympics sometimes the lion turns into a little cat, and the little cat into a lion."

Beach volleyball world champion Juliana Felisberta of Brazil on how anything can happen at the Olympics.

"The headgear... it kept falling down over my eyes. Then my contacts fell out in the first round, so I was having to wait for my opponent to get a little closer so I could throw my

shots."

Flyweight Rau'shee Warren, the first American boxer to compete in three Games, rues the latest loss in his eight-year Olympic losing streak.

"(I) grab the chimp by the scruff of the neck and get it into a box. I know their chimps really well."

Team GB's cycling "head" coach Steve Peters talks about helping athletes deal with mental "chimps" and "gremlins" to attain peak performance.

"I hope that this medal inspires the kids at home to put down guns and knives and pick up a pair of trainers instead. If they do that, I will be the happiest guy in the world."

Erick Barrondo, winner of Guatemala's first-ever Olympic medal with silver in the men's 20-kilometre race walk.

"My mother used to tell us in the mornings, 'Carl put on your shoes, Oscar you put on your prosthetic legs ...So I grew up not really thinking I had a disability. I grew up

thinking I had different shoes."

South African runner Oscar Pistorius, nicknamed 'Blade Runner' because he races on carbon fibre prosthetic blades, talks about growing up playing sports with brother Carl.

"Good evening, Mr Bond."

The 86-year-old Queen Elizabeth makes her film debut in a clip with James Bond star Daniel Craig shown as part of the quirky opening ceremony.

"The female body is a masterpiece. Everyone likes to look at the female body, especially in dynamic, athletic sport."

Natalie Cook, gold medallist at Sydney in 2000, defends bikinis in beach volleyball.

"There are many people who want to start rowing because I have come to the Olympic Games. We will start when I get back. We just have to wait for the boats to arrive."

Wildcard Niger rower Hamadou Djibo Issaka trained for just three months for the men's single sculls, but never in his landlocked and mostly desert country.

"My results come from hard work and training and I would never use any banned drugs. The Chinese people have clean hands."

Chinese swimming sensation Ye Shiwen brushes aside doping suspicions raised after the 16-year-old set a world record to win the women's 400-metre individual medley.

"Had I won the gold medal, I would have retired."

Roger Bannister, famous for running a mile in under four minutes in 1954, reveals he might have quit two years earlier had he not missed out on the medals at the Helsinki

Olympics.

"I said 'The medal is there, we have to take it'. I had a super feeling. I felt something big, but now I feel something even bigger, a big pain."

Injured Swiss cyclist Fabian Cancellara rues a crash in the men's road race.

"'Inspire a generation' is our motto. Not necessarily 'Create a generation', which is what they sometimes get up to in the Olympic village."

London Mayor Boris Johnson extols the "energy and enthusiasm" of the Games' 10,000 athletes, to whom some 150,000 condoms have been distributed.

"It's tough. It's not ballet."

Six foot 5 inch (1.96 metre) Croatian water polo player Miho Boskovic clutches a bag of ice to his elbow as he describes the sport following a tough comeback win over Greece.

"We were getting rather frustrated with Transport for London at one point and discussed internally trying to get on a bus with a coffin."

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