Wilma Rudolph
Wore a leg brace as a child and became the fastest woman in the world
Wilma Rudolph was born prematurely, the twentieth of 22 children in a poor family in Tennessee. As a small child she caught pneumonia, scarlet fever and then polio, which left her left leg twisted and weak. The nearest hospital that would treat Black patients was 50 miles away, and her mother took her there by bus every week for two years for treatment, then massaged her leg at home four times a day with the help of her siblings.
She wore a metal leg brace from the age of five and orthopaedic shoes after that. Doctors doubted she would ever walk without support. By 12 she had thrown the brace away and was beating boys at basketball. A college coach who saw her play invited her to a summer athletics camp.
At 16 she won a bronze medal in the relay at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. Four years later in Rome, running on a sprained ankle, she won the 100 metres, the 200 metres and the sprint relay, the first American woman to take three golds at a single Games. Italian newspapers called her "the Black Gazelle".
When her home town proposed a victory parade she refused to attend unless it was integrated. It became the first mixed-race public event in the town's history. She retired at 22, before her fame could turn into money, and spent the rest of her life teaching and coaching young athletes. She died of brain cancer at 54.