At the 1960 Rome Olympics, Wilma Goldean 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.

	Wilma Rudolph just before leaving for the 1961 USA vs. USSR track meet.

Rudolph's Olympic performances were spectacular. But it is the story of how she got there that makes her accomplishments legendary.

She was born prematurely on June 23, 1940 in St. Bethlehem, Tenn. She weighed 4 1/2 pounds. The bulk of her childhood was spent in bed. She suffered from double pneumonia, scarlet fever and later she contacted polio. After losing the use of her left leg, she was fitted with metal leg braces when she was 6.

"I spent most of my time trying to figure out how to get them off," she said. "But when you come from a large, wonderful family, there's always a way to achieve your goals."

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.

She turned to track while in high school, and her career took off. She was a sensation right from the start. "I don't know why I run so fast," she said. "I just run."

She ran to a bronze medal at age 16 in the 400 relay at Melbourne in 1956, then sprinted onto the world stage in Rome four years later.

Upon returning to the U.S. after the 1960 Olympics, her hometown of Clarkesville, Tenn., wanted to greet her with a parade, but she said she wouldn't attend a segregated event. Her welcome-home celebration was the first integrated event in that city's history.

Rudolph spent the rest of her life coaching and teaching the youth. Far more than an athlete, her life was living testimony of the extraordinary power of the human will to overcome adversity.

Rudolph was born in St. Bethlehem, Tenn., on June 23, 1940. She died of brain cancer in her home on Nov. 12, 1994.