Born 20th out of 22 children, 2 months premature and weighing only 4.5 pounds, on June 23, 1940 in St Bethlehem, Tennessee. Because of racial segregation the baby girl and her mother were not permitted to be cared for at the local hospital. It was for whites only. And because of her weakened condition and insufficient medical care, she suffered from a series of childhood diseases such as mumps, chickenpox, scarlet fever, double pneumonia, and remained bedridden. Her left leg was deformed from Polio.
Refusing to believe that her child would never walk again, her mother Blanche, sacrificed every last penny for bi-weekly physiotherapy sessions. Every session was a painful experience but the girl persisted on believing her mother when she said,
“Honey, you will not only walk again, but you’re gonna run!”
A few years later, that same girl walked into church on a Sunday morning without any assistance to the cheers of everyone who was amazed by her perseverance. When someone asked her to say something she said,
“My doctor told me I would never walk again. My mother told me I would. I believed my mother.”
When she was in junior high, she joined the basketball team but remained on the bench for 3 full years where she watched, observed and analyzed the games. In her 4th year with the team, she made an appeal to be in the starting lineup and her wish was finally granted. She dazzled everyone by leading the team to an undefeated season and the state championships.
By the time she was 16, she earned a berth on the U.S. Olympic track and field team and came home from the 1956 Melbourne Games with an Olympic bronze medal in the 4 x 100 meter relay. Then at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome she won three Olympic Gold medals in the 100 meter, 200 meter, and the 4 x 100 meter relay events.
From the girl whom doctors told would never walk, Wilma Rudolph was hailed throughout the world as “the fastest woman in history.”
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