Wilma Rudolph

Wilma Glodean Rudolph was born prematurely at four pounds in Clarksville, Tennessee, the twentieth of twenty-two children. At age four, she contracted polio, which left her left leg paralyzed. Doctors said she would never walk normally.

With her mother's help and years of physical therapy, Rudolph not only walked — she ran. By high school, she was a basketball star, and at 16, she won a bronze medal at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics.

At the 1960 Rome Olympics, Rudolph became the first American woman to win three gold medals in a single Games, taking the 100m, 200m, and 4x100m relay. The girl who couldn't walk became the fastest woman in the world. She returned home and refused to attend her segregated victory parade unless it was integrated — making it Clarksville's first integrated event.