Wilma Rudolph

At 54 years old, Wilma Rudolph has this physical status:

Wilma Glodean Rudolph (June 23, 1940 – November 12, 1994) was an African-American sprinter born in Saint Bethlehem, Tennessee, who became a world-record-breaking Olympic champion and international sports icon after her appearances in the 1956 and 1960 Olympic Games.

Rudolph competed in the 200-meter dash and captured bronze medal in the 4 100-meter relay at Melbourne, Australia.

At the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, Italy, she also earned three gold medals in the 100- and 200-meter individual events as well as the 4 x 100-meter relay.

Rudolph was voted 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. Rudolph, as well as other Olympic athletes, such as Cassius Clay (later known as Muhammad Ali), Oscar Robertson, and Rafer Johnson, who competed in Italy, became international television coverage of the 1960 Summer Olympics. Rudolph, who was an Olympic champion in the early 1960s, was one of America's most prominent black women.

She became a role model for black and female athletes, and her Olympic victories helped raise women's profile and field in the United States.

Rudolph is also known as a civil rights and women's rights pioneer.

Rudolph retired from competitive action in 1962 as the world record holder in the 100-meter individual events and the 4 100-meter relay.

The 1963 graduate of Tennessee State University became an educator and mentor after participating in the 1960 Summer Olympics.

Rudolph died of brain and throat cancer in 1994, and her accomplishments have been reflected in a number of publications, including a US postage stamp, documentary films, and a made-for-television film.

Early life and education

Rudolph was born prematurely to Blanche Rudolph, 4.5 pounds (2.0 kg) in Saint Bethlehem, Tennessee, (now part of Clarksville). She was the twentieth of two children from her father Ed Rudolph's two marriages. Wilma's family moved to Clarksville, Tennessee, where she grew up and attended elementary and high school. Ed, Ed's father, who worked as a railway porter and did odd jobs in Clarksville, died in 1961, but Blanche, her mother, worked as a maid in Clarksville homes and died in 1994.

Rudolph had several early childhood illnesses, including pneumonia and scarlet fever, and she contracted infantile paralysis (caused by the poliovirus) at the age of five. She recovered from polio, but she lost power in her left leg and foot. Rudolph wore a leg brace until she was 12 years old, but she was physically disabled for the majority of her childhood. Rudolph's parents sought medical attention for her at the historically black Meharry Medical College (now Nashville General Hospital at Meharry) in Clarksville, Tennessee, about 50 miles (80 km) from Clarksville, because there was no emergency services available to African American residents of Clarksville in the 1940s.

Rudolph and her mother used to travel to Nashville for medical care to regained control of her leg. She also received subsequent at-home massage therapy sessions four times a day from family members of her household, and wore an orthopedic shoe for her foot for another two years. Rudolph was able to recover the debilitating effects of polio and learned to walk without a leg brace or orthopedic shoe by the time she was twelve years old, thanks to the Meharry and daily massages from her family members.

Rudolph was first homeschooled due to her frequent illnesses that caused her to miss kindergarten and first grade. She started second grade at Cobb Elementary School in Clarksville, Texas, in 1947, when she was seven years old. Rudolph attended Clarksville's all-black Burt High School, where she excelled in basketball and track. Rudolph's senior year of high school, she became pregnant with her first child, Yolanda, who was born in 1958, only a few weeks before she enrolled in Tennessee State University in Nashville. Rudolph continued to do well in college and is now on track to win. She has also become a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. Rudolph received a bachelor's degree in education from Tennessee State University in 1963. Rudolph's college education was funded by her participation in a work-study scholarship scheme that required her to work on the TSU campus for two hours a day.

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Career

Rudolph was first introduced to organized sports at Burt High School, the nexus of Clarksville's African American population. Rudolph followed her sister Yvonne's footsteps and began playing basketball in the eighth grade after undergoing multiple years of medical therapy to regaine the use of her left leg. Rudolph continued to play basketball in high school, where she became a starter on the squad and started competing in track. Rudolph scored 803 points in her sophomore year, breaking a new record for high school girls' basketball. Since she moved so fast, Rudolph's high school coach, C. C. Gray, gave her the nickname "skeeter" (for mosquito).

Rudolph was noticed by Ed Temple, Tennessee State's track and field coach, while coaching her high school basketball team, a major departure for the young athlete. For the first time, when Temple saw the tenth grader for the first time, he knew she was a natural performer. Rudolph had already had some track experience on Burt High School's track team two years ago, mainly as a way to keep up between basketball seasons. Rudolph, a high school sophomore, competed at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama's first big track meet. Rudolph, although she lost the competition, was determined to keep competing and winning.

Rudolph, a fourteen-year-old boy, was accepted by Temple University to begin his summer training program. Rudolph participated in all nine events at an Amateur Athletic Union track meet in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, after attending the track camp. Despite being a high school student, she continued to train at TSU under Temple's direction. Rudolph competed with the TSU women's track team, also known as the Tigerbelles, for two years before enroling at TSU as a student in 1958.

Rudolph was sixteen and a freshman in high school, and she qualified to compete in the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia, where she competed in the 200-meter individual event. Rudolph, the youngest member of the US Olympic team, was one of five TSU Tigerbelles to qualify for the 1956 Melbourne Olympics.

Rudolph was disqualified in the preliminary heat of the 200-meter relay at the Melbourne Olympic Games but he crossed the third leg of the 4 100 meter relay. Rudolph, Isabelle Daniels, Mae Faggs, and Margaret Matthews, three members of TSU Tigerbelles, took the bronze medal in a world-record time of 44.9 seconds. The British team earned the silver medal. The Australian team, led by Betty Cuthbert as their anchor leg, won the gold medal in a time of 44.5 seconds. Rudolph returned to her Tennessee home from the Melbourne Olympic Games, she showed her high school classmates the bronze medal she had won and decided to run for a gold medal at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, Italy.

Rudolph enrolled at Tennessee State in 1958, where Temple continued as her track coach. Rudolph received a silver medal in the 100-meter individual event, as well as a gold medal in the 4 100-meter relay with teammates Isabelle Dan, Barbara Joe, and Lucinda Williams in 1959. She earned the AAU 200-meter championship in 1959 and spent four years as the AAU 200-meter champion. Rudolph also won three AAU indoor titles during her career.

Rudolph competed in the United States Olympic track and field trials at Abilene Christian University, where she set a world record in the 200-meter dash that lasted for eight years as a sophomore at Tennessee State University. In the 100-meter dash, she qualified for the 1960 Summer Olympics.

Rudolph participated in three events in Rome's Stadio Olimpico, including the 100- and 200-meter relay, as well as the 4 100-meter relay. Rudolph, who earned a gold medal in each of these events, became the first American woman to win three gold medals in a single Olympiad.

Rudolph made the finals of the 100-meter dash in a time of 11.0 seconds, with wind-aided time. (The record-breaking time was not considered a world record because the wind, at 2.75 meters (3.01 yd) per second), exceeded the maximum of 2 meters (2.2 yd). Rudolph became the first American woman to win a gold medal in the 100-meter race since Helen Stephens' triumph in the 1936 Summer Olympics. Rudolph took home another gold medal in the 200-meter dash in the finals of the 200-meter dash in 24.0 seconds, after establishing a new Olympic record of 23.2 seconds in the first heat. "The fastest woman in history" was lauded around the world after these victories.

As thousands of spectators packed the stadium on September 7, 1960, the temperature reached 110 °F (43 °C). Rudolph defeated the 4 100-meter relays with her Olympic teammates from Tennessee State—Martha Hudson, Lucinda Williams, and Barbara Jones, a world record of 44.4 seconds in the semifinals, after winning the 4 100-meter relays in 44.5 seconds. Rudolph, the American team's anchor leg, almost dropped the baton after a miss from Williams, but she won the relay by a close finish, but she beat Germany's anchor leg. Rudolph had a special, personal reason to vote for victory: to honor Jesse Owens, the legendary American athlete and star of the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany, who had been inspired.

Rudolph was one of the 1960 Rome Olympics' most popular athletes, and he was dubbed "The Tornado, the fastest woman on earth" after being unveiled. ("The Black Gazelle"), the Italians referred to her as "La Gazzella Nera" ("The Black Gazelle"). "La Perle Noire" ("The Black Pearl"), as well as "La Chattanooga Choo-Choo," were among the French names. Rudolph, as well as other 1960 Olympic athletes such as Cassius Clay (later known as Muhammad Ali), Oscar Robertson, and Rafer Johnson, became a national celebrity thanks to the first worldwide television coverage of the Olympics this year. Rudolph's 1960 Rome Olympics brought her into the public spotlight, and the media has her as America's "leading lady" and a "queen" with lauds of her athletic accomplishments as well as her feminine beauty and poise.

Rudolph returned home to Clarksville, following her completion of a post-games European tour, where she and her Olympic teammates competed in meets in London, West Germany, the Netherlands, and other venues around Europe. On October 4, 1960, Rudolph's hometown of Clarksville celebrated "Welcome Wilma Day" with a full day of festivities. Rudolph pleaded persistently that her homecoming parade and banquet became the city's first fully integrated municipal event in history. About 1,100 people attended the banquet in her honor, and thousands of people gathered in the city streets to watch the parade.

Rudolph's gold-medal victories in Rome "propelled her to be one of the most prominent black women in the United States and around the world." "Her Olympic appearance gives the indoor track circuit a big boost in the months after the Olympic Games in Rome." Rudolph participated in the Los Angeles Invitational indoor track meet in 1961, where thousands of spectators came out to watch her run. In addition, she was able to compete in New York Athletic Club track events and became the first woman to play at the Millrose Games. Rudolph was also accepted to compete at the Penn Relays and the Drake Relays, among other things.

The United States Information Agency produced Wilma Rudolph: Olympic Champion (1961), a ten-minute documentary film highlighting her achievements on target following her Olympic victories. Rudolph appeared on To Tell the Truth, an American television game show, in 1960, and later as a guest on The Ed Sullivan Show, helping her brand as a heralded sports star.

Rudolph married William Ward, a North Carolina College at Durham track team member, in 1961; they divorced in 1963. Rudolph retired from track racing at the age of twenty-two after victories in the 100-meter and 4x 100-meter relay relay races at the U.S.–Soviet meet at Stanford University in 1962. Rudolph was still the world record holder in the 100-meter (11.2 seconds set on July 19, 1961), and 4 x 100-meter relay events at the time of her retirement. She had also won seven national AAU sprint titles and set a new personal record of 6.9 seconds in the 60-yard dash. Rudolph said she resigned at the end of her athletic career because she wanted to leave the sport while still at her best. As a result, she did not compete at the 1964 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, and says, "If I won two gold medals, there would be something missing." "I'll keep the honor I've already won like Jesse Owens did in 1936."

Rudolph continued her education at Tennessee State University and earned a bachelor's degree in elementary education in 1963 after retiring from sports. In the same year, she spent a month in West Africa as a goodwill ambassador for the US State Department. Rudolph appeared on television and radio broadcasts as the United States Ambassador to the 1963 Friendship Games in Dakar, Senegal, and visited Ghana, Guinea, Mali, and Upper Volta, where she attended sporting performances, visited colleges, and appeared on television and radio broadcasts. She appeared at the premiere of the United States Information Agency's documentary film, which emphasized her track record.

Rudolph took part in a civil rights march in Clarksville, just weeks after returning from Africa, to desegregate one of the city's restaurants. The mayor declared that the city's public services, including its restaurants, would be fully integrated within a short period of time. Later this year, Rudolph married Robert Eldridge, who had fathered her child when she was in high school. The couple had three children before marrying after seventeen years of marriage.

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