Sport: Athletics

Hometown: St. Bethlehem, TN

Biography:  Wilma Rudolph was a sight to behold. At the 1960 Rome Olympics, Rudolph became "the fastest woman in the world" and the first American woman to win three gold medals in one Olympics. She won the 100- and 200-meter races and anchored the U.S. team to victory in the 4 x 100-meter relay, breaking records along the way. In the 100, she tied the world record of 11.3 seconds in the semifinals, then won the final by three yards in 11.0. However, because of a 2.75-meter per second wind -- above the acceptable limit of two meters per second -- she didn't receive credit for a world record. In the 200, she broke the Olympic record in the opening heat in 23.2 seconds and won the final in 24.0 seconds. In the relay she overtook Germany's anchor leg, and the Americans, all women from Tennessee State, took the gold in 44.5 seconds after setting a world record of 44.4 seconds in the semifinals. Rudolph's Olympic performances (she also won a bronze medal at age 16 in the relay at Melbourne in 1956) were spectacular despite her adversities. She was born prematurely on June 23, 1940 in St. Bethlehem, Tenn. She suffered from double pneumonia, scarlet fever and later she contacted polio as a child. After losing the use of her left leg, she was fitted with metal leg braces when she was 6. However, years of treatment and a determination to be a "normal kid" worked. Despite whooping cough, measles and chicken pox, Rudolph was out of her leg braces at age 9 and soon became a budding basketball star. At the all Black Burt High School, Rudolph played on the girls' basketball team. Rudolph became an all-state player, setting a state record of 49 points in one game. Then Ed Temple came calling. Temple, the Tennessee State track coach, looked to form a girls' track team so he could turn one of the forwards into a sprinter. And Wilma was the one. Almost the entire 1960 Olympic team, coached by Temple, came from his Tennessee State team. She was voted into the Black Athletes Hall of Fame in 1973 and the National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1974.