08/19/2025
Born premature and diagnosed with polio at the age of 5, doctors said Wilma Rudolph would never walk again. Yet with relentless determination and the unwavering support of her family, she defied all odds to become the first American woman to win three gold medals in a single Olympics. 🏃🏿♀️
Hailed as “America’s greatest female sports hero since Babe Didrikson Zaharias,” Rudolph’s legacy still shines bright more than 30 years after her passing. 🌟
“’Before I realized I was a living person, I was in (leg) braces,’ she once told a crowd of college students.
Kids singled her out for ridicule, or they ostracized her and excluded her from their games and activities. But Rudolph continued to keep her body—and mind—in motion any manner that she could. Fitted with a leg brace and orthopedic shoe, the young girl would not be defeated by her shortcoming. She hopped on one foot in the house and street. She tossed a basketball into a makeshift hoop—a peach basket attached to a pole in the backyard. She helped her mother with the chores, cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the many other children. Rudolph’s family took her to a hospital in Nashville, where the doctors tended to the girl’s compromised leg with massage and exercise.
Lonely and melancholy, she watched the other kids play games on the playground and field. She studied the games they played, especially basketball, worked hard at her leg exercises, and believed that she and her circumstances would improve. Bit by bit, she regained strength and power in her afflicted leg; then one wondrous morning at church, she was able to walk unaided by any medical devices. At age 12, Rudolph and her mother packed the brace in a box and returned it back to the hospital, both of them aware that the girl’s life was starting all over again.”
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