Tenley Albright

At the age of 12, Tenley Albright contracted a mild form of polio but was told to continue skating to help her minimize the loss of any leg muscles. The therapy apparently worked well because only five months later she won the Eastern Juvenile title, the first of many victories. Tenley Albright won her first of five consecutive national titles in 1952. She was also world champion in 1953 and 1955. At the 1956 Olympics, she was hoping to better her 1952 silver medal performance but suffered a large gash in one leg while training. Despite the pain, she continued training and defeated arch-rival Carol Heiss for the gold. Albright attended Radcliffe and then Harvard Medical School and later became a general surgeon. In 1982 she became a vice president of the U.S. Olympic Committee. She has been twice married, the first to Tudor Gardiner, the son of a former Maine governor.