Wilma Rudolph was born on June 23, 1940, two months early and weighing just over four pounds. As a child, she contracted polio, and it was feared that she might never walk again. She kept moving any way she could, hopping around her home, to the outhouse in the backyard, and on Sundays, to church. Twice a month, her mother, who had 21 other children, took Wilma by bus to the nearest hospital that would treat black patients, fifty miles away in Nashville. Wilma began to walk again, and after years of hard work and dedication, made it to the 1960 Summer Olympics where she made history by becoming the first woman to win three gold medals at the same Olympic games. For a moving tribute to this great athlete, who died in 1994, check out Kathleen Krull's Wilma Unlimited: How Wilma Rudolph Became the World's Fastest Woman, an ALA Notable Children's Book of 1997.
