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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.

Wilma Rudolph

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Wilma Rudolph
Age: 54 †
Born: 1940
Born: June 23
Died: 1994
Died: November 12
Athlete
Sprinter
Clarksville
Tennessee
Wilma Glodean Rudolph
Three
Surely
Going
Famous
Life
Tried
Gold
Wasn
Asks
Medals
Winning
Medal
Purpose
Transition

More quotes by Wilma Rudolph

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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.
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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.
Wilma Rudolph
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Sometimes it takes years to really grasp what has happened to your life.
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I thought I'd never get to see that. Florence Griffith Joyner -- every time she ran, I ran.
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When the sun is shining I can do anything no mountain is too high, no trouble too difficult to overcome.
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My doctor told me I would never walk again. My mother told me I would. I believed my mother.
Wilma Rudolph
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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.
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My mother taught me very early to believe I could achieve any accomplishment I wanted to. The first was to walk without braces.
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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.
Wilma Rudolph
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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.
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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.
Wilma Rudolph
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Believe me, the reward is not so great without the struggle.
Wilma Rudolph
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I knew that whatever I set my mind to do. I could do.
Wilma Rudolph
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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.
Wilma Rudolph
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I'm in my prime. There's no goal too far, no mountain too high.
Wilma Rudolph
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No matter what great things you accomplish, somebody helps you.
Wilma Rudolph
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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.
Wilma Rudolph
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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.
Wilma Rudolph
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But when you come from a large, wonderful family, there's always a way to achieve your goals.
Wilma Rudolph
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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.
Wilma Rudolph