In honor of Women’s Day, I am posting about badass, inspirational women all week. I am kicking off with this story that is sure to have you in awe at the heights we can reach as human beings when the will is strong!
So imagine this….
You’re an African American girl born in the 40’s, a time when racial inequalities and inequities were widespread. You are born prematurely at 4.5 lbs., the 20th of 22 siblings, to lower working class parents. At the age of 4, you contract a crippling infantile paralysis caused by the polio virus which twists your leg out of shape and forces you to wear a brace on your left leg and foot for 5 years. You are drained of much of your physical strength & doctors predict you will be unable to walk correctly without braces, if at all, for the rest of your life. More so, you contract several more bouts of polio and scarlet fever before you are 12. What sort of life do you see in your future??
Well I can tell you what Wilma Rudolph (b. 1940) envisioned for herself….
She became a high school basketball star, setting state records for scoring. During a game, her speed and natural athletics caught the eye of a college track & field coach, who immediately recruited her to train with his team.
By the time she was 16, she earned a spot on the U.S. Olympic track and field team and came home from the 1956 Melbourne Games with an Olympic bronze medal in the 4 x 100 m relay to show her high school classmates.
She continued to compete with much success. Four years later, at the Summer Olympics in 1960, she brought home 3 Gold Medals for the 100m, 200m, and 400m relay.
She retired from competition at age 22. She worked as an elementary school teacher, coaching track, and became a sports commentator on national television.
WOW, what determination!!!!
HAVE A GREAT DAY!
Miami Women-Only Fitness Bootcamp 
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