Wilma Rudolph is a former American
track and field athlete and the first American woman to win three gold medals at one Olympic Games. Born prematurely in St. Bethlehem, Tennessee, she contracted double pneumonia, scarlet fever and polio. She lost the use of her left leg and was fitted with metal leg braces from ages 6 to 9. She became an all-state high school
basketball player and a track and field star at Tennessee State University. At the Olympic Games Rome 1960, she won the 100- and 200-meter races and anchored the victorious 4x100 relay team. Rudolph would later serve as a track coach at DePauw University and as a U.S. Goodwill Ambassador to French West Africa. She passed away from brain cancer on Nov. 12, 1994, in Nashville, Tennessee.
