The hardest thing in golf is trying to two-putt when you have to, because your brain isn’t wired that way. You’re accustomed to trying to make putts, and when you change that mind-set, your brain short-circuits, especially under pressure.

~ Ken Venturi

Pressure is playing for ten dollars when you don’t have a dime in your pocket.

~ Lee Trevino

I always had a dream to play for India but I never let it put pressure on me.

~ Sachin Tendulkar

At this level, you put a lot of pressure on yourself as a player to perform and do well.

~ Mats Sundin

The team that is the most focused and executes the best is the team that wins. That’s usually the team that can handle the pressure of the situation.

~ Michael Strahan

The only pressure I feel is how I can contribute to help my team win the match. Of course, there is always the pressure to score, but then doesn’t it eventually help your team win? Frankly, I don’t let these things affect me.

~ Rohit Sharma

No matter how tough, no matter what kind of outside pressure, no matter how many bad breaks along the way, I must keep my sights on the final goal, to win, win, win — and with more love and passion that the world has ever witnessed in any performance.

~ Billie Jean King

‘I Did The Very Best I Could’

By Leigh Montville, Sports On Earth
Originally Published: 24 January 2013

The letter resembles something that a member of the family might find now in the pages of a book or slipped behind a dresser drawer. The man, John Thomas, once the most famous high jumper in creation, died last week at the age of 71 in Brockton, Mass., during vascular surgery. The letter survives, written by a 19-year-old boy.

The boy’s life was changed forever one afternoon in Rome, Italy, during the 1960 Olympics. He was supposed to be a star in those Games. Everybody said so. He was a cinch in the high jump, a lock, not only to win a gold medal, but to beat the Russians, to score geopolitical points in the enduring Cold War that had so many fronts at the time. He was the world record holder at 7 feet, 3-3/4inches, had jumped that height five times since April. The Russians had only one man who barely had scraped over seven feet. God bless America. This would be easy… Click here to read on

No pressure, no diamonds

~ Thomas Carlyle

Andy Murray: I’m the underdog for Wimbledon Federer final

By Mike Henson, BBC Sports
Originally Published: 6 July 2012

Andy Murray believes he can confound the British public’s expectations and beat six-time champion Roger Federer to win an historic Wimbledon final.

Victory for Murray on Sunday would end a 76-year wait for a British successor to Fred Perry as men’s champion… Click here to read on