Wilma Rudolph

  b. 1940; d. 1994 | American sprinter

At The Bottom

— 1945

Rudolph entered life facing additional risk factors, including deep poverty and substandard medical care.

It was a miracle she ever made it to her first birthday. Wilma Rudolph was born two months premature in June 1940, the 20th of 22 children in her family — her parents each had children from previous marriages as well as from their own.  At the time, babies like Wilma — who weighed less than five pounds — frequently died during their first year.   As an African American living in a small, segregated Tennessee town, Rudolph entered life facing additional risk factors, including deep poverty and substandard medical care.  By the age of four, she had survived viral pneumonia, mumps, measles, whooping cough and scarlet fever. A bout of polio, however, had twisted her left leg, turning her foot inward and leaving her partially paralyzed.  The President at the time, Franklin Roosevelt, had survived polio as a young man but afterward had never again been able to walk under his own power Ð and he came from a very wealthy family with the best medical care.  At best, doctors said, Wilma might learn how to walk with the aid of a leg brace.