“My doctors told me I would never walk again. My mother told me I would. I believed my mother,” (Biography.com Editors). Wilma Rudolph did, in fact, walk again. She did not just walk, though. She ran. Rudolph had determination like no one else. She was a minority of a minority, an African-American women in the 1960’s. She defied her doctors and made the impossible possible.Wilma Glodean Rudolph’s life was influenced by her early life. Her major accomplishments to American society, including becoming the first woman to win three gold medals at a single Olympic game, anchoring the American Olympic team to victory, and founding the Wilma Rudolph Foundation, helped her earn her place in history as an important African American. First, Rudolph overcame many challenges thrown at her since birth. Wilma was brought into the world prematurely on June 23, 1940, in St. Bethlehem, Tennessee (Wilma Rudolph …show more content…
She was born as the 20th child of Ed Rudolph, and weighed only four and a half pounds (Wilma Rudolph Biography). As a child, Rudolph was struck with double pneumonia, scarlet fever, and contracted polio. This resulted in the paralysis of her left leg. She was forced to wear an uncomfortable brace on the leg and could barely walk (Biography.com Editors). One day, out of the blue, Wilma astounded her doctors by taking her brace off and began to walk (Wilma Rudolph Biography). She soon started playing basketball with her siblings and other kids her age (Wilma Rudolph Biography).“By the time I was 12, I was challenging every boy in our neighborhood at running, jumping, everything,” says Wilma Rudolph (Wilma Rudolph Biography). When Rudolph wanted to play basketball in high school, the coach would not put her on the team (Wilma Rudolph Biography). She only got to play at