When tragedy strikes and health is affected some people lie down and wait to die. Such was not the case for Wilma Rudolph and Chantal Petitclerc, two women who not only dealt with pain, but went on to make a name for themselves in the field of athletics!
On Your Marks...Get Set...and Win the Game of Life!
“They’re naturally gifted. They were just born
to do that.” When we see high performing athletes on television, like
those who compete in the Olympics, it’s easy for us to say that some people are
just blessed with better genes than others. “They’re naturals,” we offer…and in
doing so, we rob many hard working, dedicated athletes of the glory they are
due for the sacrifices they have made. . . Athletes like Wilma Rudolph and
Chantal Petitclerc.
On your marks...
Wilma Rudolph and Chantal Petitclerc were not born to race. In fact, the
obstacles each had to overcome were severe. Only the most dedicated would push
on through the challenges they faced:
Wilma Rudolph battled life from the very beginning. She was born prematurely
on June 23, 1940, in St.
Bethlehem, Tennessee. She
weighed a mere four and a half pounds (about two kilograms!). Now with the
technology available today, this situation might not be so scary. But being
born in the southern U.S.
in 1940 meant that because of racism, finding proper care was difficult.
African-American babies did not have access to the best doctors and
hospitals. There was only one black doctor in Clarksville,
and because the Rudolph’s were quite poor, her mother became her nurse. She
suffered through one illness after another, including measles, mumps, chicken
pox, double pneumonia, and scarlet fever. And then she had her greatest
challenge of all—polio. It was a crippling disease that had no cure. Her left
leg and foot were weakened, and doctors said she would never walk again.
Despite having a large family to manage (twenty-two children!), Wilma’s mother
never gave up. As Wilma herself said,
“My doctor told me I would never walk again. My mother told me I would. I believed
my mother.”
Chantal Petitclerc also had her life altered drastically as a child. In
1982, at the curious age of thirteen, Chantal and a friend were building a
bicycle ramp. Unfortunately, the heavy barn door they were planning to use for
the task fell directly on Chantal, breaking her spine, and costing her the use
of both legs. Though she did not have to face any racial discrimination like
Wilma Rudolph did, she’d have to learn to live with the challenge of facing
life in a wheelchair…