livelymorgue:

March 16, 1930: Already a gold medalist at age 16, winning the first women’s Olympic 100-meter dash in 1928 in Amsterdam, Betty Robinson showed an interest in other sports, as well. In June 1931, she was injured in a plane crash, feared dead and taken to a morgue but found to be in a coma. She woke up 11 weeks later. Despite the insertion of a rod and pins into her leg and a lengthy confinement to a wheelchair and crutches, in 1932 The Associated Press reported that she might one day run again. She did, in 1936, winning a second gold medal in Berlin in the 4×100-meter relay. Photo: The New York Times

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