A woman displays a replica of Wilma Rudolph's athletic shoe at the opening of an Olympic exchibition in Marathon. A woman displays a replica of Wilma Rudolph's athletic shoe at the opening of an Olympic exhibition in Marathon 42 km east of Athens August 5, 2004. Wilma Rudolph was the first American woman runner to win three gold medals in the Olympic games. Her performance was all the more remarkable in light of the fact that she had double pneumonia and scarlet fever as a young child and could not walk without braces until age 11. REUTERS/John Kolesidis.