Wilma Rudolph

“Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit. We are all the same in this notion: The potential for greatness lives within each of us.”

“Winning is great, sure, but if you are really going to do something in life, the secret is learning how to lose. Nobody goes undefeated all the time. If you can pick yourself up after a crushing defeat, and go on to win again, you are going to be a champion.”

“The triumph can't be had without the struggle.”

“My doctors told me I would never walk again. My mother told me I would. I believed my mother.”

“I believe in me more than anything in this world.”

“I ran and ran and ran every day, and I acquired this sense of determination, this sense of spirit that I would never, never give up, no matter what happened.”

“I don't think I would have been successful if I had not been crippled. My desires, my drives, all came from that.”

“By the time I was 12, I was challenging every boy in our neighborhood at running, jumping, everything.”

“What do you do after you are world-famous and nineteen or twenty and you have sat with prime ministers, kings, and queens, the Pope? Do you go back home and take a menial job and just be forgotten?”

“I had a series of childhood illnesses; scarlet fever, pneumonia, polio. I walked with braces until I was at least nine years old. My life wasn't like the average person who grew up and decided to enter the world of sports.”