Wilma Glodean Rudolph (June 23, 1940 – November 12, 1994) was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
athleteTrack and field is a sport comprising various competitive athletic contests based around the activities of running, jumping and throwing. The name of the sport derives from the venue for the competitions: a stadium which features an oval running track surrounding a grassy area...
. Rudolph was considered the fastest woman in the world in the
1960sThe 1960s was the decade that started on January 1, 1960, and ended on December 31, 1969. It was the seventh decade of the 20th century.The 1960s term also refers to an era more often called The Sixties, denoting the complex of inter-related cultural and political trends across the globe...
and competed in two
Olympic GamesThe Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
, in 1956 and in 1960.
In the
1960 Summer OlympicsThe 1960 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVII Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event held from August 25 to September 11, 1960 in Rome, Italy...
in
RomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
she became the first American woman to win three
gold medalA gold medal is typically the medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture...
s in
track and fieldTrack and field is a sport comprising various competitive athletic contests based around the activities of running, jumping and throwing. The name of the sport derives from the venue for the competitions: a stadium which features an oval running track surrounding a grassy area...
during a single Olympic Games. A track and field champion, she elevated women's track to a major presence in the United States. She is also regarded as a civil rights and women's rights pioneer. Along with other 1960 Olympic athletes such as Cassius Clay, who later became
Muhammad AliMuhammad Ali is an American former professional boxer, philanthropist and social activist...
, Rudolph became an international star due to the first international television coverage of the Olympics that year.
The powerful sprinter emerged from the 1960 Rome Olympics as "The Tornado," the fastest woman on earth. The
ItaliansItaly , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
nicknamed her "La Gazzella Negra" (the Black Gazelle); to the
FrenchThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
she was "La Perle Noire" (The Black Pearl). She is one of the most famous
Tennessee State UniversityTennessee State University is a land-grant university located in Nashville, Tennessee. TSU is the only state-funded historically black university in Tennessee.-History:...
Tigerbelles, the name of the TSU women's
track and fieldTrack and field is a sport comprising various competitive athletic contests based around the activities of running, jumping and throwing. The name of the sport derives from the venue for the competitions: a stadium which features an oval running track surrounding a grassy area...
program.
Biography
Wilma Rudolph was born prematurely at 4.5 lbs. , the 20th of 21 other brothers and sisters, and caught
infantile paralysisPoliomyelitis, often called polio or infantile paralysis, is an acute viral infectious disease spread from person to person, primarily via the fecal-oral route...
(caused by the polio virus) as a very young child. She recovered, but wore a brace on her left leg and foot which had become twisted as a result. By the time she was twelve years old, she had also survived
scarlet feverScarlet fever is a disease caused by exotoxin released by Streptococcus pyogenes. Once a major cause of death, it is now effectively treated with antibiotics...
,
whooping coughPertussis, also known as whooping cough , is a highly contagious bacterial disease caused by Bordetella pertussis. Symptoms are initially mild, and then develop into severe coughing fits, which produce the namesake high-pitched "whoop" sound in infected babies and children when they inhale air...
,
chickenpoxChickenpox or chicken pox is a highly contagious illness caused by primary infection with varicella zoster virus . It usually starts with vesicular skin rash mainly on the body and head rather than at the periphery and becomes itchy, raw pockmarks, which mostly heal without scarring...
, and
measlesMeasles, also known as rubeola or morbilli, is an infection of the respiratory system caused by a virus, specifically a paramyxovirus of the genus Morbillivirus. Morbilliviruses, like other paramyxoviruses, are enveloped, single-stranded, negative-sense RNA viruses...
. Her family drove her regularly from
ClarksvilleClarksville is a city in and the county seat of Montgomery County, Tennessee, United States, and the fifth largest city in the state. The population was 132,929 in 2010 United States Census...
,
TennesseeTennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
to
NashvilleNashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
, Tennessee for treatments to straighten her twisted leg. She also had to have a leg brace on for three years(6 to 9).
In 1952, 12-year-old Wilma Rudolph finally achieved her dream of shedding her handicap and becoming like other children. Wilma's older sister was on a
basketballBasketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
team, and Wilma vowed to follow in her footsteps. While in
high schoolHigh school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
, Wilma was on the basketball team when she was spotted by
Tennessee StateTennessee State University is a land-grant university located in Nashville, Tennessee. TSU is the only state-funded historically black university in Tennessee.-History:...
track and fieldTrack and field is a sport comprising various competitive athletic contests based around the activities of running, jumping and throwing. The name of the sport derives from the venue for the competitions: a stadium which features an oval running track surrounding a grassy area...
coach Edward S. Temple. Being discovered by Temple was a major break for a young athlete. The day he saw the tenth grader for the first time, he knew he had found a natural athlete. Wilma had already gained some track experience on Burt High School's track team two years before, mostly as a way to keep busy between basketball seasons.
While she was attending Burt High School, Rudolph became a basketball star, setting state records for scoring and leading her team to the state championship. By the time she was 16, she earned a berth on the U.S. Olympic track and field team and came home from the
1956 Melbourne GamesThe 1956 Melbourne Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVI Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was held in Melbourne, Australia, in 1956, with the exception of the equestrian events, which could not be held in Australia due to quarantine regulations...
with an Olympic
bronze medalA bronze medal is a medal awarded to the third place finisher of contests such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The practice of awarding bronze third place medals began at the 1904 Olympic Games in St...
in the
4 x 100 metres relayThe 4 × 100 metres relay or sprint relay is an athletics track event run in lanes over one lap of the track with four runners completing 100 metres each. The first runners begin in the same stagger as for the individual 400 m race...
.
At the
1960 Summer OlympicsThe 1960 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVII Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event held from August 25 to September 11, 1960 in Rome, Italy...
in
RomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
she won three Olympic titles; the
100 mThe 100 metres, or 100-metre dash, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, it is one of the most popular and prestigious events in the sport of athletics. It has been contested at the Summer Olympics since 1896...
,
200 mA 200 metres race is a sprint running event. On an outdoor 400 m track, the race begins on the curve and ends on the home straight, so a combination of techniques are needed to successfully run the race. A slightly shorter race, called the stadion and run on a straight track, was the first...
and the 4 x 100 m relay. As the temperature climbed toward 110 degrees, 80,000 spectators jammed the
Stadio Olimpico. Rudolph ran the 100-meter dash in an impressive 11 seconds flat. However the time was not credited as a world record, because it was wind-aided. She also won the 200-meter dash in 23.2 seconds, a new Olympic record. After these twin triumphs, she was being hailed throughout the world as "the fastest woman in history". Finally, on September 11, 1960, she combined with Tennessee State teammates
Martha HudsonMartha B. Hudson Pennyman is a former American athlete, who mainly competed in the 100 meters. She was born in Eastman, Georgia and attended Tennessee State University....
,
Lucinda WilliamsLucinda Williams Adams is an American athlete, who mainly competed in the 100 meters. She competed for the United States in the 4 x 100 m relay at the 1960 Summer Olympics held in Rome, Italy, where she won the gold medal with her team mates Martha Hudson, Barbara Jones and Olympic 100 and 200...
and Barbara Jones to win the 400-meter relay in 44.5 seconds, setting a world record. Rudolph had a special, personal reason to hope for victory—to pay tribute to
Jesse OwensJames Cleveland "Jesse" Owens was an American track and field athlete who specialized in the sprints and the long jump. He participated in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany, where he achieved international fame by winning four gold medals: one each in the 100 meters, the 200 meters, the...
, the celebrated American athlete who had been her inspiration, also the star of the
1936 Summer OlympicsThe 1936 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event which was held in 1936 in Berlin, Germany. Berlin won the bid to host the Games over Barcelona, Spain on April 26, 1931, at the 29th IOC Session in Barcelona...
, held in Berlin, Germany. Rudolph sprinted in the Drake Relays in Des Moines, IA and won first place.
Rudolph retired from track competition in 1962 at age 22 after winning two races at a U.S.–
SovietThe Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
meet.
Awards and honors
Rudolph was United Press Athlete of the Year 1960 and
Associated Press Woman Athlete of the YearThe first Athlete of the Year award in the United States was initiated by the Associated Press in 1931. At a time when women in sports were never given the same recognition as men, the AP offered a male and a female athlete of the year award to either a professional or amateur athlete...
for 1960 and 1961. Also in 1961, the year of her father's death, Rudolph won the
James E. Sullivan AwardThe James E. Sullivan Award, presented by the American Amateur Athletic Union , is awarded annually in April to "the outstanding amateur athlete in the United States". Often referred to as the Oscar of sports awards, it was first presented in 1930. The award is named for the AAU's founder and past...
, an award for the top amateur athlete in the United States, and visited President
John F. KennedyJohn Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
.
She was voted into the National Black Sports and Entertainment Hall of Fame in 1973 and the National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1974.
She was inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 1983, honored with the National Sports Award in 1993, and inducted into the
National Women's Hall of FameThe National Women's Hall of Fame is an American institution. It was created in 1969 by a group of people in Seneca Falls, New York, the location of the 1848 Women's Rights Convention...
in 1994.
In 1994, the portion of U. S. Route 79 in Clarksville, Tennessee between the Interstate 24 exit 4 in Clarksville to the Red River (Lynnwood-Tarpley) bridge near the Kraft Street intersection was renamed to honor Wilma Rudolph.
Career and family
In 1963, Rudolph was granted a full
scholarshipA scholarship is an award of financial aid for a student to further education. Scholarships are awarded on various criteria usually reflecting the values and purposes of the donor or founder of the award.-Types:...
to
Tennessee State UniversityTennessee State University is a land-grant university located in Nashville, Tennessee. TSU is the only state-funded historically black university in Tennessee.-History:...
where she received her
bachelor's degreeA bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
in elementary education. After her athletic career, Rudolph worked as a teacher at Cobb Elementary School, coaching track at Burt High School, and became a sports commentator on national television.
Wilma married her high school sweetheart Robert Eldridge in 1963, and had four children: Yolanda (b. 1958), Djuanna (b. 1964), Robert Jr. (b. 1965) and Xurry (b. 1971). Wilma and Eldridge later divorced.
Death
In July 1994, shortly after her mother’s death, Wilma Rudolph was diagnosed with brain and
throat cancerHead and neck cancer refers to a group of biologically similar cancers that start in the upper aerodigestive tract, including the lip, oral cavity , nasal cavity , paranasal sinuses, pharynx, and larynx. 90% of head and neck cancers are squamous cell carcinomas , originating from the mucosal lining...
. On November 12, 1994, at age 54, she died of cancer in her home in
Nashville, TennesseeNashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
. At the time of her death, she had four children, eight grandchildren, and many nieces and nephews. Thousands of mourners filled Tennessee State University's Kean Hall on November 17, 1994, for the memorial service in her honor. Others attended the funeral at Clarksville's First Baptist Church. Across Tennessee, the state flag flew at half-mast.
Nine months after Wilma's death, Tennessee State University, on August 11, 1995, dedicated its new six-story dormitory the "Wilma G. Rudolph Residence Center." A black
marbleMarble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite.Geologists use the term "marble" to refer to metamorphosed limestone; however stonemasons use the term more broadly to encompass unmetamorphosed limestone.Marble is commonly used for...
marker was placed on her grave in Clarksville's Foster Memorial Garden Cemetery by the Wilma Rudolph Memorial Commission on November 21, 1995. In 1997, Governor
Don SundquistDonald Kenneth Sundquist is a former governor and congressman from Tennessee. A Republican, he served as the 47th Governor of Tennessee from 1995 to 2003...
proclaimed that June 23 be now known as Wilma Rudolph Day in Tennessee.
Legacy
In 1994, Wilma Rudolph Boulevard was the name given to the portion of
U.S. Route 79U.S. Route 79 is a north–south United States highway. The route is a northeast-southwest diagonal, with both east–west segments and north–south segments equally mixed. The highway's northern terminus is in Russellville, Kentucky, at an intersection with U.S. Highway 68 and KY 80...
in Clarksville, Tennessee.
The Woman's Sports Foundation Wilma Rudolph Courage Award is presented to a female athlete who exhibits extraordinary courage in her athletic performance, demonstrates the ability to overcome adversity, makes significant contributions to sports and serves as an inspiration and role model to those who face challenges, overcomes them and strives for success at all levels. This award was first given in 1996 to
Jackie Joyner-KerseeJacqueline "Jackie" Joyner-Kersee is a retired American athlete, ranked among the all-time greatest athletes in the women's heptathlon as well as in the women's long jump. She won three gold, one silver, and two bronze Olympic medals, in those four different events...
.
A life-size statue of Rudolph, hand-crafted from bronze, stands at the southern end of the Cumberland River Walk at the base of the Pedestrian Overpass, College Street and Riverside Drive, in Clarksville.
In 2000
Sports IllustratedSports Illustrated is an American sports media company owned by media conglomerate Time Warner. Its self titled magazine has over 3.5 million subscribers and is read by 23 million adults each week, including over 18 million men. It was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the...
magazine ranked Rudolph as number one in its listing of the top fifty greatest sports figures in twentieth-century
TennesseeTennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
.
Following the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Berlin in 1994, Berlin American High School (BAHS) was turned over to the people of Berlin and became the "Gesamtschule Am Hegewinkel." The school was renamed the Wilma Rudolph Oberschule in her honor in the summer 2000.
On July 14, 2004, the
United States Postal ServiceThe United States Postal Service is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States...
issued a 23 cent
Distinguished Americans seriesThe Distinguished Americans series is a set of definitive stamps issued by the United States Postal Service which was started in 2000 with a 10¢ stamp depicting Joseph Stilwell...
postage stampA postage stamp is a small piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage. Typically, stamps are made from special paper, with a national designation and denomination on the face, and a gum adhesive on the reverse side...
in recognition of her accomplishments.
See also
- Wilma or The Story of Wilma Rudolph, (1977) docudrama
In film, television programming and staged theatre, docudrama is a documentary-style genre that features dramatized re-enactments of actual historical events. As a neologism, the term is often confused with docufiction....
by Bud Greenspan
Resources
- Biracee, Tom. Wilma Rudolph, Holloway House Publishing Company; (June 1990) - ISBN 0-87067-565-6
- Braun, Eric. Wilma Rudolph, Capstone Press, (2005) - ISBN 0-7368-4234-9
- Coffey, Wayne R. Wilma Rudolph, Blackbirch Press, (1993) - ISBN 1-56711-004-5
- Conrad, David. Stick to It!: The Story of Wilma Rudolph, Compass Point Books (August 2002) - ISBN 0-7565-0384-1
- Harper, Jo. Wilma Rudolph: Olympic Runner (Childhood of Famous Americans), Aladdin (January 6, 2004) - ISBN 0-606-29739-1
- Krull, Kathleen. Wilma Unlimited: How Wilma Rudolph Became the World's Fastest Woman, Harcourt * Children's Books; Library Binding edition (April 1, 1996) - ISBN 0-15-201267-2
- Maraniss, David. Rome 1960: The Olympics That Changed The World, Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster, Inc., a division of CBS Corporation, is a publisher founded in New York City in 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. It is one of the four largest English-language publishers, alongside Random House, Penguin and HarperCollins...
, (2008) - ISBN 1-4165-3408-3
- Ruth, Amy. Wilma Rudolph, Lerner Publications (February 2000) - ISBN 0-8225-4976-X
- Schraff, Anne E. Wilma Rudolph: The Greatest Woman Sprinter in History, Enslow Publishers, (2004) - ISBN 0-7660-2291-9
- Sherrow, Victoria. Wilma Rudolph (On My Own Biographies), Carolrhoda Books (April 2000) - ISBN 1-57505-246-6
- Smith, Maureen Margaret. Wilma Rudolph: A Biography, Greenwood Press, (2006) - ISBN 0-313-33307-6
- Streissguth, Tom. Wilma Rudolph, Turnaround Publisher, (2007) - ISBN 0-8225-6693-1
External links