About

The fastest woman in the world

What about Wilma Rudolph, hailed as the fastest woman on earth after she won

three gold medals for sprints and relay in the 1960 Rome Olympics? She was far

from a physical wonder as a youngster. She was a premature baby, the twentieth

of twenty-two children born to her parents, and a constantly sick child. At four

years of age, she nearly died of a long struggle with double pneumonia, scarlet

fever, and polio(!), emerging with a mostly paralyzed left leg. Doctors gave her

little hope of ever using it again. For eight years, she vigorously pursued

physical therapy, until at age twelve she shed her leg brace and began to walk

normally.

If this wasn’t a lesson that physical skills could be developed, what was? She

immediately went and applied that lesson to basketball and track, although she

lost every race she entered in her first official track meet. After her incredible

career, she said, “I just want to be remembered as a hardworking lady.”

What about Jackie Joyner-Kersee, hailed as the greatest female athlete of all

time? Between 1985 and the beginning of 1996, she won every heptathlon she

competed in. What exactly is a heptathlon? It’s a grueling two-day, seven-part

event consisting of a 100-meter hurdles race, the high jump, the javelin throw, a

200-meter sprint, the long jump, the shotput, and an 800-meter run. No wonder

the winner gets to be called the best female athlete in the world. Along the way,

Joyner-Kersee earned the six highest scores in the history of the sport, set world

records, and won two world championships as well as two Olympic gold medals

(six if we count the ones in other events).

Was she a natural? Talent she had, but when she started track, she finished in

last place for quite some time. The longer she worked, the faster she got, but she

still didn’t win any races. Finally, she began to win. What changed? “Some

might attribute my transformation to the laws of heredity….But I think it was my

reward for all those hours of work on the bridle path, the neighborhood

sidewalks and the schoolhouse corridors.”

Sharing the secret of her continued success, she says, “ There is something

about seeing myself improve that motivates and excites me. It’s that way now,

after six Olympic medals and five world records. And it was the way I was in

junior high, just starting to enter track meets.”

Her last two medals (a world-championship and an Olympic medal) came

during an asthma attack and a severe, painful hamstring injury. It was not natural

talent taking its course. It was mindset having its say.💯💯💯