It's like having a pet dog for a long time. You get attached to it, and when it dies you miss it.

I decided I wasn't going to come down. I was going to fly. I was going to stay up in the air forever.

People say that it was degrading for an Olympic champion to run against a horse, but what was I supposed to do? I had four gold medals, but you can't eat four gold medals. There was no television, no big advertising, no endorsements then. Not for a black man, anyway.

Awards become corroded, friends gather no dust.

People come out to see you perform and you've got to give them the best you have within you.

The battles that count aren't the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself - the invisible, inevitable battles inside all of us - that's where it's at.

We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort.