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.

---

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

---

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.

---

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.

---

Sometimes it takes years to really grasp what has happened to your life.

---

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

---

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.

---

But when you come from a large, wonderful family, there's always a way to achieve your goals.

---

I believe in me more than anything in this world.

---

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

---