Explore Quotes by Wilma Rudolph

I knew that whatever I set my mind to do. I could do.

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 job? What do you do to keep your sanity? You come back to the real world.

The potential for greatness lives within us all.

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.

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

When I was going through my transition of being famous, I tried to ask God, why was I here? What was my purpose? Surely, it wasn't just to win three gold medals. There has to be more to this life than that.

But when you come from a large, wonderful family, there's always a way to achieve your goals.

I thought I'd never get to see that. Florence Griffith Joyner -- every time she ran, I ran.

'I can't' are two words that have never been in my vocabulary. I believe in me more than anything in this world.

The triumph can't be had without the struggle.

My doctor told me I would never walk again. My mother told me I would. I believed my mother.

It doesn't matter what you're trying to accomplish. It's all a matter of discipline. I was determined to discover what life held for me beyond the inner-city streets.

I'm in my prime. There's no goal too far, no mountain too high.

Winning is great, sure, but if you are really going to do something in life, the secret is learning how to lose.

Believe me, the reward is not so great without the struggle.

The triumph can't be had without the struggle. And I know what struggle is. 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.

My mother taught me very early to believe I could achieve any accomplishment I wanted to. The first was to walk without braces.

I tell them that the most important aspect is to be yourself and have confidence in yourself.