"I'm never one to be stuck for words, but this time I just don't know what to say." Cian O'Connor, after . . . well, you know.
The winners
Reporter: "Have you ever had a bigger moment?"
Jeremy Wariner (400 metres winner): "Besides being born, I don't think so."
"During the race I felt nothing. Couldn't feel anything. All I felt at the end was that I was a hundred miles from everybody."
Justin Gatlin, the 100 metres champion.
"This is a miracle. I'm too tired to even cry. I never ran so fast. To come out and be perfect, I'm shocked. I am very proud, not just for myself and China, but for Asia and the yellow-skinned people. My victory has proved that athletes with yellow skin can run as fast as those with black and white skin."
China's Liu Xiang, the high hurdles winner.
The disappointed
"Put it this way, I will wake up with this every morning for a year. Just that time between when you are fully awake and you are asleep and you will be thinking: 'there is something I want to change' . . . and I will be looking up at that scoreboard and that is what I am going to feel."
Sam Lynch, after he and Gearóid Towey failed to qualify for the lightweight double sculls final.
"I exceeded my wildest dreams, in a negative sense."
Marion Jones, after a fruitless Games.
"Nothing I can do or say now will justify what I did."
Adrian O'Dwyer, after failing to reach the high jump final.
"I was listening to Brown Eyed Girl before we came out, just trying to keep things normal. I tried to stay relaxed but I felt my arms in the second 50 . . . they were shaking. And I have never felt that before. It just wasn't there. If it isn't there, it isn't there."
Irish swimmer Emma Robinson, after failing to qualify from her 100 metres heat.
"You think when you are in a medal position that you can do whatever it takes to stay there. But then you have another two or three minutes of rowing to go and you are in a situation that your legs are burning and your brain is screaming for more. Your brain is writing cheques that your body can't cash."
Niall O'Toole, after the Irish lightweight fours missed out on a medal.
The critics
"The gold medal she craved above all else was washed down by a flood of her own tears down the dusty gutter into which she slumped so abjectly. So was the pride of a watching nation and unless some drastic explanation for her surrender is forthcoming, her self-respect. She seems destined to become little more than an Olympic postscript. Athens 2004; Marathon: P Radcliffe - pulls up."
The Daily Mail's Jeff Powell, oozing with compassion after Paula Radcliffe's marathon experience.
"She ran like a wimp and didn't win the medal that was easy to get . . . she should not have been happy with bronze."
UK Athletics technical director Charles van Commenee, unimpressed by Kelly Sotherton's failure to win heptathlon silver.
"I think the sailors have performed dismally . . . their results have been really horrific. They have been promising medals for the last three Olympic Games and have received more money than anybody else."
Will Pat Hickey, president if the Olympic Council of Ireland, be guest of honour at the next big Irish regatta? Possibly not.
Jerry v James
"Quite frankly he's become a bit of a dilettante . . . his work ethic just isn't strong enough at this level."
RTÉ pundit Jerry Kiernan on 1,500 metres runner James Nolan.
"He was questioning my training techniques, my commitment to training. And this was coming from a marathon-runner-stroke-cross-country-slogger?"
Nolan responding to Kiernan's criticism.
"He doesn't know the meaning of the word speed."
Nolan, still responding to Kiernan.
"And he also questioned the injury in my hamstring, which he knows nothing about . . . he's saying I was using that as an excuse. Who's he to question me? An asshole."
Nolan, to be continued.
"Jerry, you're a fool."
Nolan, contd.
The fed up
"I didn't deserve that criticism, especially from someone who doesn't pay taxes in our country."
Darren Campbell, after BBC pundit Michael Johnson had a go at him.
"I hung up on anybody who asked what happened. What kind of question is that? What happened? We lost."
Allen Iverson, after the American basketball team was beaten for only the third time in Olympic history.
"How can I train them? I can't get inside their heads. When I ask them to do things they never say no, never question, just say yes. They don't get involved. When one senior member is angry, everybody else goes silent and they slowly go down. Boys aren't like that."
South Korea women's hockey coach Kim Sang-ryul's version of 'that's wimmen for ya'.
"I think a lot of fans in America still think it's 1992, and you can come over here and beat every team by 40. The world has changed - if you don't know that, you've been living in a phone booth."
American assistant basketball coach Gregg Popovich.
The drugs
"All these people who crucify me on TV are the same people who wanted to be photographed with me after every success. But after crucifixion comes resurrection."
Greek sprinter Kostas Kenteris.
"No, I don't take steroids, but thanks for asking."
The caption on the T-shirt of the American javelin thrower Breaux Greer.
"The Olympic gold medal is the highest award for any athlete. I think the Greek gods helped me win this gold medal today."
Russian Irina Korzhanenko, after 'winning' shot put gold at Ancient Olympia.
"It shows that you can't go to Ancient Olympia and screw around and expect to get away with it."
Dick Pound (World Anti-Doping Agency) after Korzhanenko tested positive for steroids.
"I was treated badly. They stripped me off and even looked into my backside. It was like the Gestapo method in World War II."
Hungary's Robert Fazekas after losing his discus gold medal for tampering with a doping test sample.
"I swear to God, my children, my two little angels, that I never took anything. I want you all to believe me. Don't abandon me. I want you to stay close to me. I want you to believe in me again."
Greek bronze medallist weightlifter Leonidis Sampanis, who tested positive for drugs.
"In terms of drawing a line in the sand, we've done that here in Athens. If we catch you, you're gone. If we can't catch you now, we'll get you later and you're gone."
Dick Pound.
The politics
"They are not very sophisticated politically. Whoever posed these questions knew the answers would be negative. It is possible something was lost in translation."
Mark Clark, Olympic media officer for the Iraqi football squad, after one of the players accused George Bush of "slaughtering" Iraqis and vowed to fight the Americans when he returned home.
"Miresmaeili's act was extremely valuable, and therefore we are awarding him the gold medallist award."
The head of the Iranian Physical Education Organisation after Arash Miresmaeili refused to fight an Israeli in the Judo competition (he will receive 100,000, the same as Iran's weightlifting gold medallist).
"It is funny that we boycotted the 1980 Games in Moscow in support of Afghanistan, and now we're bombing Afghanistan. Of course, we've invaded Iraq and are in there and are using it for political gain. It bewilders me, and I understand why the Iraqi players are offended."
Carl Lewis, accusing George Bush of exploiting the Games for his own political advantage.
The downright peculiar
"Riding is like making love; in one it depends on the horse and in the other on the woman."
Spain's equestrian dynamo Rafael 'menage-a-trois' Soto on his extraordinary love life.
"Once he raced a zebra and a giraffe on American television, beating the latter and being outsprinted by the former. He demanded a rematch, accusing the zebra of a false start."
Tony Lawrence of Reuters on American sprinter Shawn Crawford.
"You should see the size of the horseflies around here. When they land you get out a knife and fork."
Niall Griffin on his strange eating habits.
"The Tee-shock applauds."
BBC commentator Barry Davies on spotting sports minister John O'Donoghue in the stands at the opening ceremony.
"Everybody else's family is here. Why couldn't I bring my family?"
American beach volleyball winner Misty May who sprinkled the ashes of her mother, who died two years ago, over the court after her victory.
"They could carry pests and diseases and that could be passed on to other plants. Biosecurity is vitally important. If they want to hold on to their memories they will have to take a picture."
The New Zealand Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries explaining why their athletes won't be allowed bring their olive wreaths home.
Official: "You are the one who came second, right?"
Dibaba: "No, first."
Official: "You got a silver medal?"
Dibaba: "No, gold."
Ejegayehu Dibaba after finishing second to China's Xing Huina in the 10,000 metres final - Dibaba said she thought Xing was a lapped runner and "had I known, I would have put in more effort and passed her".
And (almost) finally . . .
"They'll be disappointed with that. They're getting out of the pool and going to Chin, their Russian coach."
The BBC's synchronised diving commentator after the British team belly-flopped.
"I always said equestrian was the dark horse for a medal at these Games."
Pat Hickey. Boom boom.
"Them Cubans lose, they take away their house - it's different for us."
American boxer Ron Siler shares his theory on why Cuba are successful in the sport.
"To my big surprise I have had serious offers from other countries. I would never employ a 73-year-old. He could die at any time."
Irish rowing coach Thor Nilsen.
"I put it on and, for a few moments, became a medallist myself, but the wife started laughing at me."
Athens taxi driver Yannis Zavos after finding Dutch rower Diederik Simon's silver medal in the back of his taxi.
"Per capita, the Bahamas actually won the Olympics."
Debbie Ferguson, after winning bronze in the 200 metres.
"We don't have any system in our country - we water the branches, but the roots are dry."
Former Indian athlete Gurbachan Randhawa bemoaning his government's policy of financially rewarding medal winners while putting little into the grassroots of sport. (The world's second most populous nation won a single medal).
"Last year I asked them to go heavyweight . . . it would be a much nicer life for everybody if they could eat."
Irish rowing coach Thor Nilsen on the weight problems of Sam Lynch and Gearóid Towey.
"He doesn't know it's an Olympic Games. If he did he would have done his best."
Heike Holstein after her dressage horse, Welt Adel, threw a wobbler on his Olympic debut.
The last word
"If it wasn't the Olympics I probably wouldn't have finished the race, but it's the Olympic Games, the flame was burning, I just couldn't leave the track before the finishing line. I thought something special would happen out there tonight, but it just wasn't there, I don't know, I think I've had it, that's about it."
Sonia O'Sullivan.
