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| Photos by BU Photo Services |
Women Inspiring Hope and Possibility is the theme of this year's National Women's History Month, which is held in March. Olympic gold medalist Tenley Albright, shown in a 1955 photo at a Boston-area skating rink (above left) and in a 1957 photo at a tea in her honor at Sargent College (seated center), where she served on the board of visitors, took up skating as a form of rehabilitation after having polio at the age of 10. “When I had polio, there wasn't any treatment except for what we call ‘Sister Kenney Treatments' that were steamed, hot packed towels,” she said in a 1991 interview. “One Monday morning, the doctors came in and said to me, ‘On Friday we are going to ask you to take three steps.' . . . I worked all week, lying in my bed, thinking what it would be like and how I would somehow manage to take three steps. Friday morning came, and somehow I did manage. And that was really the start of my recovery.” Albright went on to win five consecutive national championships and became the first American woman to take a world title. She won the silver medal at the 1952 Olympics, at the age of 16, and captured the gold four years later. She entered Harvard Medical School and became a surgeon, pioneering new techniques for the detection and treatment of cancer.
19 March 2004
Boston University
Office of University Relations