Lynn Petronella

I attribute my success to the pain I endured, because it was pain that had a purpose. It was pain that showed me who I was as a woman. It showed me all the false belief systems that had been thrown at me between the church and the politics to keep me in a house. Running saved my life - it created a whole new life for me and I became a whole new person. When I started winning races, I had so many friends, and I said I'll just keep running. I was very determined, and I really didn't have an option because I was being underpaid at work. I was on fire for something I believe in, and I believe this is my mission and this is my message. I was doing it for something way bigger than me - women were not seen. I did not feel seen in my marriage, in my job, I did not feel heard, I did not feel paid. I wanted to be seen. I had to take all the programming out and start from zero - who is this? What is this body? What is this female? Who am I as a woman? That was a fucking eye-opener. It was an enlightening experience of being purified and closer to God. I felt so close to God through the pain because I was in such agony. When you run to win a race, you're kind of skating on the edge of a breakthrough and a breakdown - how far can you push your body before you completely collapse. That brought a sense of joy, fulfillment, and self-actualization and self-esteem that had been completely destroyed. It brought it all back stronger and better.

The best thing my father said to me was 'do the best you can,' and I always thought I could do better because I was harder on myself than other people were on me. I'm a very hard-driving person and very ambitious. I don't think you can really give advice - I think it's more about what I learned. I learned that if you want something deeper, if you want something real, if you want something genuine, I think you gotta bleed for it. I don't think it comes easy. Nothing comes easy. You have to do it with all your heart. When you run, you run with your heart. Most Olympic athletes that win a gold medal, you have to do it for something bigger than you. I was doing it for something way bigger than me. If you think bigger about others and incorporate that with yourself, that's what changes the dynamic. It's a sacrifice, because nothing comes easy. If you're going through hell, keep going. It's a baptism by fire - you don't even know the fire's coming, one day you're on fire, and you better keep running. Then you find yourself in a place you didn't expect to be in, but maybe God wanted you there all along.

I would say we have a long way to go - I've been at this 50 years and I've seen some things change, but the men always overshadow it. You gotta get money to go into things that are gonna work, like real jobs for people. Women need to be rich first. When I left my marriage, I said I'll never get remarried again until I own my own business, my own house, and everything is in only my name. Working out can open up a whole section in your brain that you didn't even know you had. A lot of things come out of love - the heart has more neurons in it than the brain, so you do it with all your heart. You run with your heart, out of love of something - love of yourself, love of the sport, love of a thing bigger than you. Don't get too negative about anything, don't get too down on yourself, and just try to have some peace in your life. Tune out the noise and have the quiet, then you can hear other things. That's how creative people work - you have to be in silence. You gotta get rid of the anger and the pain and the frustration, and once you clear that up, that opens up space for you to have a bigger heart and a different journey. The best thing you can hope for is to influence people in a positive way. If you think bigger about others and incorporate that with yourself, that's what changes the dynamic. And remember - you're the catch. You're the Olympic champion. You're the gold medalist in your life.

The biggest opportunity right now is that Hollywood is changing so much, and we may actually strike the iron because we're not the typical Hollywood people. We're more on the right side. We didn't want to sell our soul to make a movie. The 80 million people that voted for Trump hate Hollywood, so it could be revamped with good people. Stephen Baldwin said if you put all four Baldwin brothers' work together, they've made more movies than anybody's family in history, and he said on Bill O'Reilly's show that they wish movies were the way they used to be. The challenge is that it's still very unequal - it's all gone to the basketball players, the hockey players, but the women runners are the ones who started Nike. Women are buying the shoes for their families, for the men and the women, but it was always unequal and it's still unequal. The financial implications of everything are always worse for women and children. We still get paid less. The intersection of technology and work is very key for the future - I've been fascinated with AI and working a lot on my projects with it. It's not quite there yet before you can do a whole movie in your house, but it's coming. I'm constantly evolving and learning the tech because the intersection of technology and work is very key for the future.

The most important values to me are love and truth. I believe the world's greatest achievement is birth, and the highest form of love is having a baby, but we're never rewarded for the thing that we do the most, which is love and give birth. Love gets thrown in the garbage - they say you're too emotional, but thank God or the baby would die in a week. I feel like what I've got to say is the truth, and I know it's true because I did it and I feel it was given to me through my experiences. You know what they say about the truth - it sets you free. If you can take the pain of it and make it funny, then you win. I want to influence people in a positive way - if it's a positive contribution that you're gonna make, that's the best you can hope for. I had to turn around what I thought was going to be my life into something that I thought would be more positive, not just for me, but for other people. I think if you think bigger about others and incorporate that with yourself, that's what changes the dynamic. I believe this is my mission and this is my message. I believe every child is a royal child, and I know in practice it's an impossibility, but it's a lovely idea. I want what I do to have a meaning for something greater than myself.