Every time the Olympics roll around, we’re regaled with inspiring stories of the athletes. Well, it’s hard to imagine a more inspiring story than this one, from long ago. Tenley Albright was the very first American woman to win the Olympic gold medal in figure skating, and the first to win the World Championship. That was in 1956. It was a remarkable feat, made all the more so, because Tenley Albright was a polio survivor. After those Olympics, she entered Harvard Medical School - one of only 5 women - and spent the next decades as a surgeon, a researcher, and a professor. At 86, she is still running a center she founded at MIT to devise creative solutions to public health issues. She talks here about how her recovery from polio contributed to her success as a skater, and how the lessons of skating prepared her for a life in medicine. She also tells some wonderful stories from the Winter Olympics, and shares her gentle insights about motivation and competition.
(c ) American Academy of Achievement 2022