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Motivation Quote by Linford Christie

"Obviously I was disappointed when it fell into disuse, because it was my own track named after me, but I am sure all those youngsters we lost will be coming back, and I certainly intend to be down here as much as I can, coaching and advising"

About this Quote

Ego and grief sit in the same lane here, and Christie doesn’t pretend otherwise. “Obviously I was disappointed” opens like a shrug at fame’s small humiliations: a track named after you is a public monument, and its “disuse” reads like a quiet demotion. The phrase “my own track named after me” is almost childlike in its possessiveness, but that’s the point: athletes are trained to measure worth in tangible markers - times, medals, names on things - and losing one stings.

Then the sentence pivots, hard, into something heavier: “all those youngsters we lost.” The “we” is doing real work. It pulls the problem out of Christie’s personal brand and into collective responsibility, implying a community failing - kids who drifted away from sport, from structure, maybe from a safe place to land. He refuses to name the forces (funding cuts, neglect, the lure of other streets and screens), but the absence becomes the subtext: everyone listening already knows what hollowed the pipeline.

“I am sure... will be coming back” is optimism as strategy. It’s not naive; it’s recruitment language, a promise that the door isn’t locked and shame isn’t the admission price. And Christie’s closing pledge - “down here... coaching and advising” - recasts him from icon to infrastructure. He’s leveraging the only currency that reliably moves young athletes: proximity to someone who’s been there, who can translate discipline into belief. The intent is to reanimate a legacy by rebuilding the conditions that made it possible in the first place.

Quote Details

TopicCoaching
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Christie, Linford. (2026, January 17). Obviously I was disappointed when it fell into disuse, because it was my own track named after me, but I am sure all those youngsters we lost will be coming back, and I certainly intend to be down here as much as I can, coaching and advising. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/obviously-i-was-disappointed-when-it-fell-into-68429/

Chicago Style
Christie, Linford. "Obviously I was disappointed when it fell into disuse, because it was my own track named after me, but I am sure all those youngsters we lost will be coming back, and I certainly intend to be down here as much as I can, coaching and advising." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/obviously-i-was-disappointed-when-it-fell-into-68429/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Obviously I was disappointed when it fell into disuse, because it was my own track named after me, but I am sure all those youngsters we lost will be coming back, and I certainly intend to be down here as much as I can, coaching and advising." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/obviously-i-was-disappointed-when-it-fell-into-68429/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.

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Linford Christie (born April 2, 1960) is a Athlete from United Kingdom.

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