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

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.

I don't consciously try to be a role model, so I don't know if I am or not. That's for other people to decide.

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

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.

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.

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