Best Quotes from Steve Prefontaine

By | March 2, 2022

To give anything less than your best, is to sacrifice the gift.

Steve Prefontaine

Somebody may beat me, but they are going to have to bleed to do it.

Steve Prefontaine

Some people create with words or with music or with a brush and paints. I like to make something beautiful when I run. I like to make people stop and say, ‘I’ve never seen anyone run like that before.’ It’s more than just a race, it’s a style. It’s doing something better than anyone else. It’s being creative.

Steve Prefontaine

A lot of people run a race to see who is fastest. I run to see who has the most guts, who can punish himself into exhausting pace, and then at the end, punish himself even more.

Steve Prefontaine

It’s not who’s the best – it’s who can take the most pain.

Steve Prefontaine

I’m going to work so that it’s a pure guts race at the end, and if it is, I am the only one who can win it.

Steve Prefontaine

Did you ever run behind a slow pack? You get a trailing wind and a lot of body odor.

Steve Prefontaine

For me, running against the Poles and Czechs would be like running against high school kids. And I hate all this gung-ho, run-for-the-red-white-and-blue attitude that the AAU spouts. If that’s important to some people, fine, more power to ’em. But, damn it, I wish they’d leave me alone to do what I want to do – run against the best.

Steve Prefontaine

I knew I had to show everybody that I could excel at something. But I didn’t know what.

Steve Prefontaine

I have a positive mental attitude, and I think I’m divine, but I also think it takes a heck of a lot of blood, sweat and tears.

Steve Prefontaine

I have a positive mental attitude, and I think I’m divine, but I also think it takes a heck of a lot of blood, sweat and tears.

Steve Prefontaine

If I lose forcing the pace all the way, well, at least I can live with myself. But if it’s a slow pace, and I get beaten by a kicker who leaches off the front, then I’ll always wonder, ‘What if…?’

Steve Prefontaine

I’m the one who has made all the sacrifices. Those are my American records, not the country’s.

Steve Prefontaine

No one will ever win a 5,000-meter by running an easy two miles. Not against me.

Steve Prefontaine

Kids made fun of me because I was a slow learner, because I was hyperactive, because of a lot of things. Running gave me confidence.

Steve Prefontaine

It doesn’t feel that good when you’re ahead the whole way.

Steve Prefontaine

You probably choose x-country because you were too small to play football.

Steve Prefontaine

Over the years, I’ve given myself a thousand reasons to keep running, but it always comes back to where it started. It comes down to self-satisfaction and a sense of achievement.

Steve Prefontaine

If anybody wants to beat me, let them run a world record.

Steve Prefontaine

This is my last year at Oregon, and it means a lot to me. The people have been great to me up there, so if I have to run three races to win the Pac-8 title, I’ll do it. Oh, sure, I’ll probably be tired, but the people shouting will carry me across the finish line.

Steve Prefontaine

Every once in a while I think, ‘What am I doing out here running, busting myself up? Life could be so much easier. The other guys are out having fun, doing other things, why not me?’

Steve Prefontaine

What I like most about track is the feeling I get inside after a good run.

Steve Prefontaine

What I want is to be number one.

Steve Prefontaine

I know places you better speak low if you’ve been to college. Men will come across the room and cold-deck you if you hold your glass wrong.

Steve Prefontaine

Why shouldn’t I do what I want to do… I’m an American citizen.

Steve Prefontaine

Something inside of me just said ‘Hey, wait a minute, I want to beat him,’ and I just took off.

Steve Prefontaine

A race is a work of art that people can look at and be affected in as many ways they’re capable of understanding.

Steve Prefontaine

If he’s having a good day and running the right race, nobody can beat Frank Shorter at 10,000 meters… nobody except me.

Steve Prefontaine

If I want to go to Europe and get thrashed by the Europeans, that’s my business. Every race I lose I learn from and get tougher.

Steve Prefontaine

It’s hard to run a mile when you’re not a miler and to kick when you’ve led all the way.

Steve Prefontaine

I used to say, ‘Hey, man, what kind of a stupid question is that?’ to a newspaperman asking me heavy things right after a race when I’m still in an emotional state. Now I at least try to answer.

Steve Prefontaine

I decided that if I was going to continue in track, that I didn’t want to lose, that I wasn’t going to lose.

Steve Prefontaine

If you can make money with your talents, why not?

Steve Prefontaine

My philosophy is that I’m an artist. I perform an art not with a paint brush or a camera. I perform with bodily movement. Instead of exhibiting my art in a museum or a book or on canvas, I exhibit my art in front of the multitudes.

Steve Prefontaine

Nobody likes tainted victories.

Steve Prefontaine

When people go to a track meet, they’re looking for something, a world record, something that hasn’t been done before. You get all this magnetic energy, people focusing on one thing at the same time. I really get excited about it. It makes me want to compete even more. It makes it all worthwhile, all the hours of hard work.

Steve Prefontaine

I’ve been in international competition, and now I know what the big boys can do. You don’t go out and just run. There’s an offense and a defense.

Steve Prefontaine

To hell with love of country – I compete for myself.

Steve Prefontaine

People say I should be running for a gold medal for the old red, white and blue and all that bull, but it’s not gonna be that way.

Steve Prefontaine

American athletes, especially distance runners, are at a big disadvantage against the rest of the world. We’re expected to live by all the rules, like not being able to coach, but still train and make our own living.

Steve Prefontaine

I like to be able to go out to dinner once in a while. I like to be able to drive my MG up the McKenzie River on a weekday afternoon. I like to be able to pay my bills on time.

Steve Prefontaine

I don’t care about being on television.

Steve Prefontaine

I don’t just go out there and run. I like to give people watching something exciting.

Steve Prefontaine

Coos Bay is a sports-minded town. You had to be an athlete to be somebody.

Steve Prefontaine

World records at 19. I don’t want that. Later, yes. And when it comes, I’ll learn to live with it, but it won’t be my first love.

Steve Prefontaine

What does it prove, running in the AAU meet?

Steve Prefontaine

The AAU doesn’t care about the athletes; why should I care about them?

Steve Prefontaine

If the Olympics come around, and I’m in shape, then I’ll compete. But I won’t be representing the United States; I’ll be representing myself.

Steve Prefontaine

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *