Two Of My Heros

In November 2017, Sarah Thomas was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer and ordered to start treatment, immediately.

She didn’t flinch.

The thirty five year old swimmer underwent urgent surgery followed by twelve punishing months of radio and chemotherapy.

It was brutal and her husband was certain he’d lose his wife.

And then on September 17, 2019, almost one year after completing her treatment, she set a new world record.

Sarah Thomas became the first person to swim four consecutive crossings of the English Channel, non-stop.

The swim took 54 hours and 10 minutes to complete, non-stop. [1]

Imagine that. Swimming 214km with zero rest, half of it in complete darkness, constantly running into cold currents and then emerging with a swollen face because you’ve been stung by jelly fish…and you’re in remission!

By the time your eyeballs are bouncing off this page, the Paris 2024 Olympics will have opened.

But it’s not the medals that excite me about the Olympics as much as the stories behind them.

In fact, I reckon I could write a different Moowsletter each week for the next three years and I still wouldn’t reach the bottom of my list of favourite memories.

But there’s one in particular that sits at the top of the pile.

It’s the story about a very special lady named Wilma Rudolph.

Wilma Rudolph was born prematurely on June 23, 1940, in Saint Bethlehem, Tennessee.

She was the twentieth of twenty-two (22) children from a very poor family.

Rudolph had several early childhood illnesses, including pneumonia and scarlet fever.

However, her biggest setback came at age five when she contracted infantile paralysis, caused by the polio virus.

This rendered her left leg useless and was forced to wear a leg brace with an orthopedic shoe to walk.

To help regain the use in her weakened leg, Rudolph and her mother rode fifty miles every week in a bus to Nashville for medical assistance.

Remember, this was the 1940’s!

And then when she was at home, her siblings took turns massaging her leg four times a day to rebuild it.

And it worked!

By age twelve she was able to walk without a leg brace, just in time for high school.

Her first love at school was basketball but to increase her speed around the court, she joined the track team.

Rudolph always did ‘extras’ after training to catch up with the other girls and by the tender age of sixteen, she was so quick she qualified for the US track and field team.

That year she ran in the 100m relay and the 200m sprint at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics and was the youngest member of the US Olympic team.

And then two years later in her final year of high school, she fell pregnant with her first child.

Her daughter, Yolander, was born only weeks before attending Tennessee State University in Nashville where she did a bachelor’s degree in education.

The young mother’s schedule was hectic, but she continued doing ‘extras’ after training to keep her edge.

Again, it worked.

And in 1960 she qualified for the 1960 Rome Olympics.

At Rome, she competed in the 100m and 200m sprints, as well as the 4 × 100m relay and won gold in each event. [2]

Rudolph became the first American woman to win three gold medals in a single Olympiad at just age 20.

Just eight years after busting out of her leg brace!

Let the games begin.

Have a great weekend!

Adam

[1] sarahthomasswims.com

[2] M. B. Roberts. “Rudolph ran and the world went wild”. ESPN. Retrieved February 9, 2017

Back paddock – in the lead-up to the 1988 Soul Olympics, Laurie Lawrence penned this for Duncan Armstrong before his young charge won gold in the 200m freestyle…

Be proud, persist, work hard, stand tall.
Don’t bend, don’t break, don’t quit, don’t fall.

Source: Lawrence of Australia, 1991