Anything is possible, if you never look back.

What limitation, right now, seems to be keeping you from doing something you want to do? Regardless of your answer, there’s a person who would vehemently disagree with you. She proved that whatever it is you think you can’t do, you actually can! She arrived at this conclusion many years ago when she was faced with a limitation so severe that just living a normal life seemed near impossibility. Her story has been told on TV, in books and movies. It’s one you might be familiar with… but think of your situation as you read.

            Wilma was born the twentieth child in a black family of twenty two in Clarksville, Tennessee in the 1940’s. A weak and sickly infant, she was continually afflicted with childhood diseases. At age four she contracted polio, and the doctor said she would never walk again. Until age nine she was unable to walk without wearing a steel leg brace and it was necessary for her to continue wearing a special supportive shoe until eleven.

            During the late 1940’s it was difficult enough just being black and poor, but add to that the stigma of being what many people called “a cripple” and this child seemed destined to an unenviable existence.

            Both Wilma and her mother, however, refused to believe the doctor’s prognosis. They did not accept the view that fate is something you must resign yourself to. They believed, rather, that people have unlimited potential.

            Together they began an improvement program for those skinny, wobbly legs. Her mother rode the bus with her 50 miles each way, twice a week, to the nearest hospital that would treat black patients. Soon Wilma was walking on her own. With renewed determination, she began strengthening her legs even further, and before long she could outrun every kid on the block… and soon, every kid in the city, in the state and even the nation! Her strength and determination helped her to lead her high school basketball team to the state championships.

At age 16 Wilma qualified for the U.S. Olympic team and competed in the 1956 Games at Melbourne, Australia where she won a bronze medal in the 100-meter dash.

No longer were her legs the frail, polio-stricken limbs she grew up on. Wilma had transformed them into pistons of power! Four years later she again made the Olympic team and in the 1960 Olympic Games at Rome she won three gold medals!… for the 100 and 200-meter events, as well as the 400-meter relay. In all three races Wilma Rudolph set new Olympic and world records—the first woman to win three gold medals in one Olympics, thereby establishing herself as THE FASTEST WOMAN ON EARTH. More than that, she set an astonishing example of how limitations can be conquered.

            When asked how she did it, Wilma answered, “No one has a life where everything that happens is good. I think the thing that made my life good for me is that I never looked back. I’ve always been positive no matter what happened!” Her story is proof that strength can overcome almost any disadvantage.