Olympic Notes: Can I quote you?

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BEIJING -- They are Olympic athletes and coaches, not Olympic orators and elocutionists, and every day in Beijing we are painfully reminded of this fact.

The competition is great, but sometimes, the post-game quotes are better.

A sampling from Thursday:

‘I don’t know why people don’t think that I think. Actually, I think a lot.’
-– Katerina Emmons, Czech Republic, shooter

‘I want to repeat, we have low morale.’
–- Ricardo Navajas, Venezuelan volleyball coach

‘To tell you the truth, I was surprised he made it this far.’
-– Gyorgy Struhas, Hungarian coach of silver-medal wrestler Zoltan Fodor

‘I’m happy.’
–- Zoltan Fodor

‘We lost as usual.’
-– Ahmed Zakaria, Egyptian volleyball coach

‘My nickname is the ‘The Wall’ but I can’t always be one.’
-– Fabio Magalhaes, Brazilian beach volleyball player

‘It was kind of sad it only lasted 10 seconds.’
-- Cesar Cielo Filho, Brazilian swimmer on his 50-meter freestyle

‘Maybe I’ll switch to the Winter Olympics and do speed-skating or something. I’ve got the quads for it.’
–- Sada Jacobson, U.S. bronze medalist in team sabre

‘It’s great to win two Olympic golds ... oh, wait, no.’
-– Mariel Zagunis, U.S. bronze medalist in team sabre

‘I didn’t deserve to lose. The system is corrupt.’
-- Ara Abrahamian, Swedish bronze-medal wrestler

‘I don’t care about this medal.’
–- Abrahamian

-- Bill Plaschke