Explore Quotes by Wilma Rudolph

Later on in life, I discovered that in order for me to be successful, I had to have a challenge. I can't do a nine to five job.

In college, I was an education major and qualified for several jobs. But the fame that came with the Olympic medals was too threatening to many people.

They would say, 'If you run around too much as a girl, you'll never be able to have children.' The running was supposed to be too much strain for your body, and your body would never be the same again.

I have spent a lifetime trying to share what it has meant to be a woman first in the world of sports so that other young women have a chance to reach their dreams.

There were good jobs, but they were never what I wanted to do. Somehow, people always thought of Wilma Rudolph as a threat.

You become world famous, and you sit with kings and queens, and then your first job is just a job. You can't go back to living the way you did before because you've been taken out of one setting and shown the other. That becomes a struggle and makes you struggle.

Down South, there was the old 'ladies-don't-do-such-things' way of thinking. You couldn't be a lady and a good athlete at the same time.

After the scarlet fever and the whooping cough, I remember I started to get mad about it all... I went through the stage of asking myself, 'Wilma, what is this existence all about? Is it about being sick all the time? It can't be.' So I started getting angry about things, fighting back in a new way with a vengeance.

I was six years old before I realized that there was something wrong with me... But I did have this crooked left leg, and my left foot was turned inward.

I don't know why I run so fast. I just run.

When I ran, I felt like a butterfly that was free.

No one has a life where everything that happened was good. I think the thing that made life good for me is that I never looked back. I've always been positive, no matter what happened.

I know black women in Tennessee who have worked all their lives, from the time they were twelve years old to the day they died. These women don't listen to the women's liberation rhetoric because they know that it's nothing but a bunch of white women who had certain life-styles and who want to change those life-styles.

No matter what great things you accomplish, somebody helps you.

The feeling of accomplishment welled up inside of me, three Olympic gold medals. I knew that was something nobody could ever take away from me, ever.

I loved the feeling of freedom in running, the fresh air, the feeling that the only person I'm competing with is me.

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.

Sometimes it takes years to really grasp what has happened to your life.

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 else happened.

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 up after a crushing defeat, and go on to win again, you are going to be a champion someday.

When the sun is shining I can do anything; no mountain is too high, no trouble too difficult to overcome.