"I was the fastest sprinter in middle school. It was the first time in my youth that I had felt self-pride... a feeling that I possessed some attribute worthy of notice. I remember watching a made-for-TV docudrama in 1977 on Wilma Rudolph, a young girl born prematurely at 4.5 lbs who contracted polio, scarlet fever, and wore a brace to corrected her twisted foot and weakened legs. Despite her physical limitations as a child, she went on to become the first woman in track and