why is wilma rudolph famous

Wilma Rudolph was a famous Olympic sprinter who won three gold medals at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, Italy. She was born on June 23, 1940 in Saint Bethlehem, Tennessee. She was the youngest of 22 siblings and was raised in poverty. As a young girl, she contracted polio, which left her with partial paralysis of her left leg. Despite this, she refused to be held back and worked hard to overcome her disability. In 1960, at the age of 20, she became the first American woman to win three gold medals