This is an excerpt from my exciting, upcoming book:
“My doctors told me I would never walk again. My mother told me I would. I believed my mother.” Wilma Rudolph. Wilma chose to believe the positive. She chose the belief that would take her to greatness rather than the belief that would take her to being a victim. Most people would have told her that what she was attempting was impossible.
At the 1960 Rome Olympics, 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.
In the 100, she tied the world record of 11.3 seconds in the semifinals, then won the final by three yards in 11.0. However, because of a 2.75-meter per second wind — above the acceptable limit of two meters per second — she didn’t receive credit for a world record. In the 200, she broke the Olympic record in the opening heat in 23.2 seconds and won the final in 24.0 seconds. In the relay, Rudolph, despite a poor baton pass, overtook Germany’s anchor leg, and the Americans, all women from Tennessee State, took the gold in 44.5 seconds after setting a world record of 44.4 seconds in the semifinals.
Have you ever done something that others said was impossible?
Attitudes are more important than facts!
