Gwen Torrence

“Me, with my background, this little Black girl from the projects, in this stadium, on this platform, this 'Star-Spangled Banner' is being played just for me. All those emotions, it's just so overwhelming. You did something that all these thousands of people came here to do, but you did it.”

“It's so overwhelming because you've seen that anthem played for people, you've seen it played for teams, and it's not the same when it's just for you, and all eyes are on you,It goes through your mind all the hard work you've done, all the sacrifices you've made, all the people that have helped you along the way to get there. All the people you've made proud, where you come from.”

“I just knew then that was something special.”

“I didn't know much about track, at all, so when I heard the name, when people were like, 'You're going to race against Evelyn Ashford,' I was like, 'Who is Evelyn Ashford? I just remember not being able to sleep that whole night. I was like, 'Oh, my God, I'm about to race somebody that was in the Olympics.”

“I don't mention it at all. I let them come to me, I let them get to know me and to see that I'm still a regular person. I just so happened to have been in the Olympics.”

“Some of them have been coming to me for 7, 8, 10, 13 years and don't know, and all of them get mad at me when they find out, They're like, 'Why didn't you tell me?' And I'm like, 'What am I supposed to say?”

“It's something for people to see, Sometimes I want to get them but sometimes I don't. It feels better to have them there. The world is so crazy and I don't want somebody thinking that I've got them sitting around the house.”

“He talked me into going and I was like, if I don't like it I'm coming home, I got there and it was better than I thought. Sometimes I would walk on campus and I just couldn't believe that I was there because I didn't have a goal to go to college.”

“Sometimes it feels like it never happened, Like if I'm watching Georgia football on TV and just seeing the history (of the university in a commercial or during the broadcast), it seems like I just can't believe I've been a part of the history.”

“The Olympics are what people dream of, and that wasn't my dream, I wanted to be a hairstylist and go to cosmetology school.”