12. Wilma Rudolph and polio
In 1945, Wilma Rudolph contracted infantile paralysis, an often crippling disease caused by the poliovirus. Prior to her bout with polio, Wilma recovered from both pneumonia and scarlet fever outbreaks. Polio struck her at the age of five, and though she recovered from the initial symptoms of high fever and partial paralysis, the disease left her with a left leg and foot severely weakened. At six, Wilma was forced to wear a heavy brace on her leg to stand and walk. For the next several years, Wilma and her mother traveled from their Clarksville, Tennessee, home to Nashville, for treatments on her weakened leg. The trips were by bus. At home, she received treatments including massage and strengthening exercises several times each day.
By the time she was ten, Wilma walked with an orthopedic shoe and continued multiple daily exercises and therapies. By the time she was twelve, she walked without the need of orthopedic support shoes. When she entered high school, Wilma ran track and played basketball. In the 1956 Summer Olympics, Wilma was one of four women who shared the Bronze Medal for the 4 X 100-meter relay. Four years later Wilma Rudolph became the first American woman to win three Gold Medals in a single Olympiad, earning the nickname of the “Tornado”, lauded as the “fastest woman on Earth”. United Press International named Rudolph the Athlete of the Year in 1960, fifteen years after she contracted the disease which paralyzed so many people before vaccines were developed to contain it.