Wyomia Tyus Quotes
b. 1945
Wyomia Tyus (born August 29, 1945) is a retired American track and field sprinter, and the first person to retain the Olympic title in the 100m.
Random Wyomia Tyus quote
18 quotes
I still remember it as it was then, and it is something that will always be very close to my heart.
We all went, but nobody knew what they wanted to do. And it was left up to you what you wanted to do.
And you have three women - black women - that have won back-to-back 100m. You've got myself, you have got Gail Devers and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and nobody ever speaks of it.
Just as fast as I could run, I should be able to speak out just as fast.
They couldn't care less about what women did - especially black women - what they really did in the Olympic Games. You would think somebody winning back-to-back 100m that would be a big thing.
Now people are more aware of what's going on in the world and what we need to do to change a lot of things in this world. We can make more history by writing about it and talking about it and encouraging people to stand up about human rights.
I saw them walk out and went: Ohhhh they have no shoes.
Mr Temple had said, 'I'll meet you at the train station - don't worry.
It was because I was fighting for human rights and that was the right thing for me to do.
All my friends were calling me, asking, 'How could he say that?
It's like they never saw a black woman. They weren't recognising me anyway. They weren't recognising what I would have to say or what I would have to protest.
And then they come out and ... with Usain Bolt, you know, that's all they talk about all the time.
And I said, well I ran before they did! They ran two days later after I had finished. I don't know what you're saying.
I know one thing and I still do say it. They can't talk about history unless they speak my name. I was the first to do it.
He came into my life, I had just lost my father, so he has truly, truly been a father figure to me.
Everybody said it's because of what John Carlos and Tommie Smith did.
And that's what I did. They didn't have to worry about it, I was not going to talk to anybody. So I sat there with my dignity and my little lunch box that they fixed.
So what you do, you have to be all in. You have to know why you're doing it, because no one celebrates you because you won back-to-back medals. You know you did it.