If you want sports quotes that aren't just about athletics, but are about overcoming adversity and overwhelming odds, then Wilma Rudolph quotes are just what the doctor ordered. As we prepare to commemorate her birthday this June, let's reflect on how special she was, what she taught us and the legacy she left us...



1. "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."

2. "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."

3. "My doctors told me I would never walk again. My mother told me I would. I believed my mother."

4. "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."

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

6. "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."

7. "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."

8. "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."

9. "No matter what accomplishments you make, somebody helps you."

10. "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."

For someone who was never supposed to walk again, winning three Olympic gold medals was quite the accomplishment. More impressive, though, was the person Wilma Rudolph continued to be through all the fame and all the attention.

She was a woman of character, taken too soon from this world by the ugly disease of cancer. Her legacy lives on, however. These ten Wilma Rudolph quotes are just a part of it.