This is the story of Wilma Rudolph - the "Black Gazela".

    Wilma was born as a four and a half pound baby, with polio. As a baby she could barely use her left leg. Then, before she was four, she caught pneumonia and scarlet fever. At five, Wilma was fitted with a steel brace, which she wore for the next six years. She first attended school at the age of seven. By the time she was eleven, she was able to take off the braces and start to walk, unsteadily, on her own.

    Then she got the incredible idea that she would become a runner -- the greatest female runner in the world.

    At age thirteen Wilma entered her first race. She came in last, of course. But she was too stubborn to give up. So, she entered many other races. Every race they had. And in every race she came last. People felt sorry for her and tried to discourage her.

    But she didn't give up and one day she came in next to last. And then came one day when she actually won a race.

    During her sophomore year, Wilma entered her first major track meet at Alabama's Tuskegee Institute. And she lost every race again. These losses convinced her that if she wanted to be successful in track, she would need proper coaching. Edward Temple, the track coach at Tennessee State University, invited Wilma to training camp at the university. She ran twenty miles a day at the camp and used cross-country training to build endurance. At the end of the summer Temple took his team to the National Amateur Athletic Union contest in Philadelphia. This time Wilma won all nine races she entered!

    In 1956 Wilma attended the Olympic Games in Melbourne, Australia, but was eliminated from the 200 meter. She vowed to return and win medals.