🌹REMEMBERING WILMA RUDOLPHAGAINST ALL ODDS: She was the First American Woman to Win Three Gold Medals During a Single Olympic Gam

🌹REMEMBERING WILMA RUDOLPH
AGAINST ALL ODDS: She was the First American Woman to Win Three Gold Medals During a Single Olympic Gam

🌹REMEMBERING WILMA RUDOLPH
AGAINST ALL ODDS: She was the First American Woman to Win Three Gold Medals During a Single Olympic Game

Wilma Glodean Rudolph (June 23, 1940 – November 12, 1994) was an American sprinter, who became a world-record-holding Olympic champion and international sports icon in track and field following her successes in the 1956 and 1960 Olympic Games. Rudolph competed in the 200-meter dash and won a bronze medal in the 4 × 100-meter relay at the 1956 Summer Olympics at Melbourne, Australia. She also won three gold medals, in the 100- and 200-meter individual events and the 4 x 100-meter relay at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, Italy. Rudolph was acclaimed the fastest woman in the world in the 1960s and became the first American woman to win three gold medals in a single Olympic Games.

The odds were against Rudolph from the start. She was born prematurely weighing just 4.5 pounds to a poor family in Saint Bethlehem, Tennessee. Ruldof was one of 22 children. As a young child she contracted scarlet fever, pneumonia, whooping cough, measles, chicken pox, and polio which left her unable to use one leg. She was told that she would never walk again by the doctors, but her mother told her otherwise.

She recovered from polio but lost strength in her left leg and foot. Physically disabled for much of her early life, Rudolph wore a leg brace. Because there was little medical care available to African American residents of Clarksville in the 1940s, Rudolph’s parents sought treatment for her at the historically black Meharry Medical College (now Nashville General Hospital at Meharry) in Nashville, Tennessee, about 50 miles (80 km) from Clarksville.

Because of the treatments she received at Meharry and the daily massages from her family members, Rudolph was able to overcome the debilitating effects of polio and learned to walk without a leg brace or orthopedic shoe for support by the time she was twelve years old.

Rudolph attended Clarksville’s all-black Burt High School, where she excelled in basketball and track. During her senior year of high school, Rudolph became pregnant with her first child, Yolanda, who was born in 1958, a few weeks before her enrollment at Tennessee State University in Nashville. In college, Rudolph continued to compete in track. She also became a member of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority. In 1963, Rudolph graduated from Tennessee State with a bachelor’s degree in education. Rudolph’s college education was paid for through her participation in a work-study scholarship program that required her to work on the TSU campus for two hours a day.

Due to the worldwide television coverage of the 1960 Summer Olympics, Rudolph became an international star along with other Olympic athletes such as Cassius Clay (later known as Muhammad Ali), Oscar Robertson, and Rafer Johnson who competed in Italy.

As an Olympic champion in the early 1960s, Rudolph was among the most highly visible black women in America and abroad. She became a role model for black and female athletes and her Olympic successes helped elevate women’s track and field in the United States. Rudolph is also regarded as a civil rights and women’s rights pioneer.

In 1962 Rudolph retired from competition at the peak of her athletic career as the world record-holder in the 100- and 200-meter individual events and the 4 × 100-meter relays. After competing in the 1960 Summer Olympics, the 1963 graduate of Tennessee State University became an educator and coach.

Rudolph died of brain and throat cancer in 1994, and her achievements are memorialized in a variety of tributes, including a U.S. postage stamp, documentary films, and a made-for-television movie, as well as in numerous publications, especially books for young readers.

AWARDS & HONORS

Rudolph was named United Press International Athlete of the Year (1960) and Associated Press Woman Athlete of the Year (1960 and 1961). She was also the recipient of the James E. Sullivan Award (1960) for the top amateur athlete in the United States and the Babe Didrikson Zaharias Award (1962). In addition, Rudolph had a private meeting with President John F. Kennedy in the Oval Office. Rudolph was also honored with the National Sports Award (1993).

Rudolph was inducted into several women’s and sports halls of fame:

▪Black Sports Hall of Fame (1973)
▪U.S. National Track and Field Hall of Fame (1974)
▪U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame (1983)
▪National Women’s Hall of Fame (1994)
▪National Black Sports and Entertainment Hall of Fame (2001)