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.

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I believe in me more than anything in this world.

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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.

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

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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.

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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.

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

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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.

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

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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.

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