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.

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.

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

Black women . . . work because their husbands can't make enough money at their jobs to keep everything going. . . . They don't go to work to find fulfillment, or adventure, or glamour and romance, like so many white women think they are doing. Black women work out of necessity.

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

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