Famous People with Polio

Wilma Rudolph

Wilma Rudolph (1940-1994): athlete, olympic gold medalist She was born prematurely on June 23, 1940 in St. Bethlehem, Tenn. She weighed 4 1/2 pounds. The bulk of her childhood was spent in bed. She suffered from double pneumonia, scarlet fever and later she contacted polio. After losing the use of her left leg, she was fitted with metal leg braces when she was 6. Then in Rome in 1960, she became the first American woman to win three gold medals in one Olympics.The powerful sprinter emerged from the 1960 Rome Olympics as "The Tennessee Tornado," the fastest woman on earth. The Italians nicknamed her "La Gazzella Nera" (the Black Gazelle). To the French she was "La Perle Noire" (The Black Pearl).

B.S.Chandrashekhar

Bhagwat Subramanya Chandrasekhar, also known as Chandra, has been one of the best Leg Spin specialists India has ever produced. He was one among the four India Leg Spinners who together formed the famous Indian Spin Quartet that ruled the world of Spin Bowling in the decades of 1960’s and 1970’s. The other 3 bowlers were E.A.S. Prasanna, Bishen Singh Bedi and Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan.

Chandrasekhar was born and brought up in Mysore, a city located in Karnataka. At quite an early age he got attracted towards the game of Cricket. Although nature played a cruel joke with him when his right wrist was badly affected by a Polio attack in his childhood, Chandrasekhar turned this shortcoming into his strong point by using his left arm for bowling.Overcoming a polio attack, he became one of the most successful leg spinbowlers in cricket history. An unorthodox bowler with an unusually long run-up, Chandrasekhar played in 58 Test matches, and collected 242 wickets in his career. He often bowled at medium pace, substituting his leg break, for he was not a big turner of the ball, for his googly or flipper to much success. Wisden awarded him with Cricketer of the Year award in the year 1972, and the Best Bowling Performance of the Century award in the year 2002, for his best performance against England at The Oval in the year 1971, where he took 6 wickets for 38 runs.

Jaipal Reddy

Sudini Jaipal Reddy (born 16 January 1942) is a member of the 14th Lok Sabha of India. He represents the Miryalguda constituency of Andhra Pradesh and is a member of the Indian National Congress. He is currently the cabinet minister for Urban Development. He has an M.A. from the Osmania University, Hyderabad..He is M.A in English and Bachelor of Journalism from Osmania University.He is married to Lakshmi and has teo sons and one daughter.He has been awarded as an Outstanding Parliamentarian award in 1998. Polio could not deter Jaipal Reddy's career as a successful politician. He uses crutches to walk but that hasn't dampened his spirit to work.