Wilma Rudolph

I love stories of people who, despite incredible odds, work toward their dream and accomplish it. Many of the entries in my blog tell the story of incredible people who accomplish amazing things in their lives. Wilma Rudolph is just such a person. She was the 20th of 22 children born in Tennessee in 1940. She was born prematurely and it was believed that she would not survive. She survived, but life would not be easy for this child. At the age of four, she contracted pneumonia and scarlet fever. She was left with a paralyzed leg and needed braces to walk. The family was told she would always wear the braces. At the age of nine, she removed the metal leg brace and began to walk without it. Doctors said she would always walk with a limp, but the age of thirteen she had developed a rhythmic walk - something which her doctors considered a miracle. She went on to be a basketball star in high school, setting state records for scoring and leading her team to a state championship. She then turned her attention to track. She was so skilled that she went to her first Olympic Games in 1956 at the age of 16. She won a bronze medal. In 1960, she went to the Olympic Games in Rome and became the first American woman to win three gold medals. From a struggle to survive at birth to physical roadblocks to an Olympian champion, Wilma never gave up! Becoming the best you can be against all odds . . . it's a good thing!