Lis Hartel, an equestrian from Denmark, was one of the first women to compete in the Olympic dressage event (a highly skilled form of training and riding a horse). However, her progress to the top was far from easy.In 1944, when 23-year-old Hartel was pregnant with her second child, she was paralyzed by polio. While she eventually managed to reactivate most of her muscles, she remained paralyzed below the knees. Despite years of rehabilitation, Hartel was unable to mount or dismount a horse on her own. However, that didn’t stop her from pursuing her passion for horse riding competitively and she was soon able to compete in the Scandinavian riding championships, finishing second in women's dressage.