Florence Griffith Joyner

“People don't pay much attention to you when you are second best. I wanted to see what it felt like to be number one.”

“To do justice to a lifelong dream of being a writer, I must give it the intense concentration and focus I gave to track. To do both with excellence is not possible. It is with a sense of sad...”

“That's what I'd like to do on the President's Council. Make sports and athletics available to every youth in America, not just one day a week like it was for me, but every day.”

“Conventional is not for me. I like things that are uniquely Flo. I like being different.”

“I have been running since I was 7. I was trying to restructure the way my body was made instead of trying to master the way I ran. I would get so frustrated with my starts in practices that...”

“I don't always have the best eating habits. I like butter and ice cream. There are days when I should work out and I don't. But it's never too late to change old habits.”

“People want to think that staying in shape costs a lot of money. They couldn't be more wrong. It doesn't cost anything to walk. And it's probably a lot cheaper to go to the corner store and...”

“I was always doing something physical. My brothers and I used to have handstand contests. We'd walk around the projects on our hands and see who could get the farthest. I was always playing...”

“A muscle is like a car. If you want it to run well early in the morning, you have to warm it up.”

“The main reason I wanted to be successful was to get out of the ghetto. My parents helped direct my path.”

“I couldn't wait until I grew up. I used to look at my mom's stockings and put them on with her high heels and mess with my hair.”

“I used to be teased for the way I wore my hair at school. I used to do things like wear a different-colored sock on each leg.”

“I like being unconventional.”

“I've always overworked in the weight room. I love working with weights. I knew they'd give me the strength I needed.”