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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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Wilma Rudolph
Age: 54 †
Born: 1940
Born: June 23
Died: 1994
Died: November 12
Athlete
Sprinter
Clarksville
Tennessee
Wilma Glodean Rudolph
World
Wasn
Enter
Least
Illness
Pneumonia
Sports
Nine
Braces
Persons
Average
Polio
Person
Series
Illnesses
Years
Childhood
Scarlet
Life
Decided
Fever
Like
Grew
Walked

More quotes by 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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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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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 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.
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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I thought I'd never get to see that. Florence Griffith Joyner -- every time she ran, I ran.
Wilma Rudolph
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No matter what great things you accomplish, somebody helps you.
Wilma Rudolph
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When the sun is shining I can do anything no mountain is too high, no trouble too difficult to overcome.
Wilma Rudolph
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I don't know why I run so fast. I just run.
Wilma Rudolph
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I would be disappointed if I were remembered as a runner because I feelthat my contribution to the youth of America has far exceeded the woman who was the Olympic champion.
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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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.
Wilma Rudolph
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Believe me, the reward is not so great without the struggle.
Wilma Rudolph
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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.
Wilma Rudolph
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I loved the feeling of freedom in running, the fresh air, the feeling that the only person I'm competing with is me.
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.
Wilma Rudolph
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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.
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.
Wilma Rudolph
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I believe in me more than anything in this world.
Wilma Rudolph
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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