Cecil poses with Frankel after the Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot
Frankel fever
Ahead of legendary horse Frankel's final run at Ascot on British Champions Day this Saturday - where he will seek to complete a career record of 14 races unbeaten - we bring you the thoughts of the people that matter - and some that don't.
Clare Balding, TV presenter: "Every sport needs a jaw-dropper. The kind of athlete who makes you stop and stare. Frankel is racing's Usain Bolt. He makes it look so easy, it's almost ridiculous. I feel privileged to have seen him race and I have certainly never seen a better horse in my lifetime."
Sir Michael Stoute, trainer: "[Sir] Henry [Cecil] and his team have handled Frankel impeccably. When he accelerates, he destroys the opposition in about 100yds. He is a magnificent racing machine."
Michael Owen, footballer: "Like all athletic greats, Frankel has a knack of making exceptional opposition look inferior, or in his case, proper Group 1 horses shape like mere handicappers. His talent transcends our sport, like no other horse I can remember during my lifetime."
Alan Brazil, radio presenter: "Quite simply the best horse I've ever seen in the flesh. Truly magnificent and I'm delighted for Sir Henry Cecil. We pray he wins."
Carl Froch, boxer: "When you are the best, it's harder to stay on top as rivals go at you that extra bit harder so they can be the one to say they beat you. So when you measure Frankel's success and consider that, like a boxer, he's had to take the hardest shots any of his rivals could muster, he's a true sporting great."
Harry Redknapp, football manager: "It's amazing to have such an incredible horse as Frankel. He's better than anything else out there, so we've all been really lucky to have the chance to see him. It's also been absolutely brilliant for Sir Henry Cecil — he's not been in the best of health lately, so I'm really pleased he's had Frankel to keep his spirits up."
Nick Skelton, Olympic gold medallist showjumper: "I think Frankel is a freak; he has to be the best flat horse of all time."
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Racism and corruption in football
John Terry issues a statement regarding his language in Chelsea's match against QPR, where he was accused of calling Anton Ferdinand a "f****** black c***", 361 days after the event: "I want to take this opportunity to apologise to everyone for the language I used in the game. .. [it] is not acceptable on the football field or indeed in any walk of life... it will not happen again."
The Asian Football Confederation, after referring to the UAE football team as "sand monkeys" on their official website: "The AFC apologises for an editorial mistake in which the UAE national team was inadvertently referred to by an inaccurate nickname. The error, which was mainly because of referral to a popular web-based encyclopaedia by the concerned editor, was corrected immediately after it was noticed."
England U21 defender Danny Rose after he was the target of racist abuse in Serbia, with the match ending amid violent clashes: "They have to be banned. I don't understand how else they can learn from it... During the second half two stones hit me in the head when I went to get the ball for a throw-in. Every time I touched the ball they were doing the monkey chanting again... I expressed my emotions as soon as we scored. Next thing I know, I've turned around and all the Serbia players were surrounding me, pushing me and a brawl broke out. I remember getting slapped twice. I got ushered away and that's when I kicked the ball - and then the referee sent me off."
The Serbian FA: "(The) FA of Serbia absolutely refuses and denies that there were any occurrences of racism. Making connection between the seen incident - a fight between members of the two teams - and racism has absolutely no ground and we consider it to be a total malevolence. Danny Rose behaved in inappropriate, unsportsmanlike and vulgar manner towards the supporters."
UEFA's subsequent statement: "Regarding alleged racist chanting, UEFA will instigate proceedings against the FSS. Proceedings will also be instigated against the FSS for the improper conduct of the Serbia players. UEFA will also commence proceedings against the FA for the improper conduct of the England players."
Jan Tomaszewski, Poland's goalkeeping hero when England were held at Wembley and failed to qualify for the 1974 World Cup in Germany: "In Poland it was hailed as a miracle to match when we stopped the Bolsheviks in 1920. It was a euphoric reception."
More from Tomaszewski: "I have tried to fight the disease of Polish football - corruption. The Polish FA are like a country within a country: it is run like a mafia organisation... If I told you that Polish football is great and the chairman is a phenomenal person, what would you think of me? You would say that I'm a cretin."
Authoritarian Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko after watching the national team lose 4-0 to world and European champions Spain: "I've never seen such a disgrace for our nation. Our national team, excuse my language, just s*** themselves. They came out on the pitch with their legs and arms shaking... I'd tell you the truth, we had used the administrative levers to bring 40,000 people to fill the stands. And what did we get for it?"
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Feel the Fury
Boxer Tyson Fury launches tirade against fellow British heavyweights such as David Price - including a hilarious typo: "Ill take your sole and give it the devil... I'm gonna smash your face in u s***house scouse p***k I look in your eyes and c fear! It's hard to be humble when your as great as I am! Ali said this 1960s Tyson fury saying it now!!! Without Tyson fury in British boxing it would b a dull place u all need me!!!!!!!! Boxing is not for gents it's for bad ass m*********s."
Price responds: "He's idiotic and giving the sport a bad name the way he's running round like a playground bully... The things he's saying aren't bothering me in the slightest. It's like dealing with a kid at school talking absolute nonsense."
Fury issues a homophobic response to one critic on Twitter: "don't like gays shoul all b shot dead"
And Fury later tweets: " ust come out of gym boys have bin messin with my tweets coment re gays is not my stance or opinion. I must say any gay people who no me will no I'm not homophobic at all have nothing bad to say bout them! Had many great nights out together"
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Armstrong latest
Nike after finally dropping Lance Armstrong: "Due to the seemingly insurmountable evidence that Lance Armstrong participated in doping and misled Nike for more than a decade, it is with great sadness that we have terminated our contract with him."
Armstrong in a Nike advert 10 years ago: "Everybody wants to know what I'm on. What am I on? I'm on my bike, busting my ass six hours a day. What are you on?"
Armstrong after stepping down as chairman of his cancer-fighting charity: "To spare the (Livestrong) foundation any negative effects as a result of controversy surrounding my cycling career, I will conclude my chairmanship."
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Best of the rest
Felix Baumgartner after his record leap from 24 miles up: "The exit was perfect, then I started tumbling. I thought for a few seconds, I'll fall unconscious. In that situation, when you spin around, it's like hell and you don't know if you can get out of that spin or not. Of course it was terrifying. For some reason, that spin became so violent, over all axes, and it was hard to know how to get out of that spin. It's like swimming without touching the water. I had a lot of pressure in my head... You do not want to die in front of your parents and all these people. I thought 'please God, don't let me down."
Baumgartner, already fed up of the attention soon after one of the slickest PR stunts ever orchestrated (by a certain energy drink manufacturer): "I'm retired from the daredevil business. I want to find a nice decent job as a helicopter pilot. I'll fight fires and rescue people. No e-mails, no phone calls."
And naturally, a friend of the Austrian speaks to the English media about something completely unrelated: "He loves Nicole like mad and now will walk her up the aisle as he has achieved the ultimate in his profession."
Reigning 11-times surfing world champion Kelly Slater after losing at the Rip Curl Pro in Portugal: "I'm just a little upset at myself for even bothering. I shouldn't even have paddled out to be honest. I should have said it's so bad we couldn't surf. It's not the end of the world. Nobody died, I just lost a heat. It's a bummer for me, but it's just the way it is."
Michael Schumacher, while telling the Italian media that he will not race on in motorsports: "I think I'll do Western riding competitions. My wife Corinna, who has done this sort of competitions for years, has already chosen the right horse for me. I'll go for it."
US Ryder Cup captain Davis Love III expresses regret over his pin positions on the final day of the dramatic loss to Europe: "We really may have dropped the ball on pin placements on the last few holes. The most two important holes in the singles came down to 17 and 18 and we had pins where if you hit it long and left, it was tough to get close to the pins because they were on the right. Should we have thought of that? Maybe."
Six-times world snooker champion Steve Davis: "If I was a boxer I would be advised on health grounds not to go any further. The only thing that gets hurt as a snooker player is your pride, so as long as you can handle that you can carry on for as long as you want. Barry Hearn actually challenged me to make it until I'm 60 and that is a great target to aim for. Who knows I could be the only player on the tour applying for a bus pass!"
Have we missed any great quotes from sportsmen/women this week? If so, leave a comment below!