It was natural for me to go to local tournaments with my mother and watch my brothers compete and sometimes be left with my mom at home while my dad would take my brothers away to different tournaments and competitions. So I started doing everything they did.

Diana Lopez

Christine Bass was my high school music teacher. She took a program on its last legs and within a few years turned into one of the best programs in the country. Our high school dominated national choir competitions all through her 20-plus year tenure.

Aaron Lazar

When I was a teenager, me and a couple of my friends entered a couple of modeling competitions just for fun, and one of those got me an agent in Sydney.

Abbie Cornish

Competitions are a business, first and foremost.

Abby Lee Miller

I felt the strongest impulse to climb when I entered my first competitions.

Adam Ondra

In a day and age when there are so many culinary competitions - ranging from contests of taste to those of technique - The World Food Championships will be the ultimate food competition.

Adam Richman

Yes, I am the Olympic champion, but this is not the end of it. I want all the gold that there is out there, everything that exists in figure skating. In all events, in all competitions.

Adelina Sotnikova

I don't believe in competitions between artists. This is insane. Who has the authority to say someone is better?

Alan Arkin

I always hear commentators talking about squads that have been around and that have won things; they always mention the experience of winning and knowing what it takes to win. They have only got that through winning trophies and winning competitions.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain

We have a host of English teachers in the family. My mum is an English teacher, and so are my dad, my aunt and my uncle. I have grown up with family writing competitions, and I can't remember a birthday or Christmas present that didn't include books.

Alexandra Adornetto

I went to national piano competitions and did that whole circuit. Then I played professionally to support myself when I moved out to LA.

Alicia Witt

My kids stand out at competitions. They're products of me. And you can't come to Beyond Belief and have a flamboyant teacher like me and be basic.

Alyssa Edwards

I was always a show girl. My parents were wonderful. There wasn't a lot going on where we lived, but they ferried me to classes and competitions all over the place. When I was 12, I came to London as a finalist in a singing competition and I was completely wide-eyed.

Anna Maxwell Martin

I sang a lot as a little girl and entered competitions. I loved singing in choirs, but it was as I got older that I really found my voice.

Annie Lennox

My father was sick when I was little, and we had a woman, a nanny-type, who was from Ireland. Her daughter was in Irish dancing, so she put me in it, and in the summertime, every weekend was filled with traveling somewhere to dance in competitions.

Annie Wersching

When I was younger, growing up in Pittsburgh, they had a 'Golden Gloves' program through the Boys and Girls Club. In Pittsburgh, New York, Philly, Washington, those areas, I would go and spar at competitions.

Antoine Fuqua

Being a competitive dancer is an expensive business - you have to buy the £2,000 or so tail suit and the shoes, and then get yourself around the world to the competitions. And there is not a lot of money to be made in competing.

Anton du Beke

I hope to have my players in good physical condition, all players, and then to face all competitions.

Antonio Conte

Vancouver is an amazing city and luckily, growing up in the Seattle area, I was able to immerse myself into the culture at a young age, traveling back and forth across the border for skating competitions as a youngster.

Apolo Ohno

If you want to achieve something and have results and win competitions at a high level, you have to defend as a team.

Arjen Robben

I compete against myself in competitions anyway, so I train against myself in practice.

Ashton Eaton