This February, Sports Illustrated is celebrating Black History Month by spotlighting a different iconic athlete every day. Today, SI looks back on the legacy of Wilma Rudolph.
Wilma Rudolph was once told that she would never walk again. Four years later, she was in the Olympics. Four years after that, she won three gold medals and set a world record in the process.
Such is the improbable story of Rudolph, who became one of the world's most famous athletes after the 1960 Rome Olympics. Here's how Sports Illustrated's Barbara Heilman described her that year:
A slender 5 feet 11 inches, Wilma Rudolph can command a look of mingled graciousness and hauteur that suggests a duchess but, in a crowd that is one part Skeeter and 5,000 parts people, young men and babies will come to her in 30 seconds.