Rudolph

"Wilma Rudolph." //Encyclopedia of World Biography//. Detroit: Gale, 1998. //Gale Biography In Context//. Web. 13 Feb. 2012.

**Born:** June 23, 1940 in United States, Bethlehem, Tennessee **Died:** November 12, 1994 in United States, Tennessee, Brentwood **Nationality:** American **Occupation:** Track and field athlete


 * Wilma Rudolph (1940-1994) became the first American woman runner to win three gold medals in the Olympic games.
 * was the first African American to carry the American flag during the opening ceremony
 * Prior to her death on November 12, 1994, Rudolph was still busy coaching underprivileged children and encouraging minority interest in amateur athletics
 * "It's a good feeling to know that you have touched the lives of so many young people," the mother of four told the Chicago Tribune. "I tell them that the most important aspect is to be yourself and have confidence in yourself.”
 * She rose from disability to Olympic glory.
 * Almost every circumstance was stacked against Rudolph from the day she was born on June 23, 1940. Her family was very large. Ed Rudolph had eleven children by a first marriage. His second marriage yielded eight more, of which Wilma was the fifth. At birth she weighed only four and one-half pounds. Her mother, Blanche, a domestic, feared for Wilma's survival from the outset. The family lived in tiny St. Bethlehem, Tennessee, a farming community about 45 miles southeast of Nashville.
 * At the age of four, Wilma contracted polio. Due to this she lost the use of her left leg, however she defeated the possibility of contracting many diseases.
 * Specialists in Nashville recommended a routine of massage for the limb, and Mrs. Rudolph learned it and taught it to some of the older children.

"Wilma Rudolph." //Notable Sports Figures//. Ed. Dana R. Barnes. Detroit: Gale, 2004. //Gale Biography In Context//. Web. 15 Feb. 2012.


 * A year later, on November 12, 1994, Rudolph died of brain cancer in Nashville, Tennessee. She was buried with the Olympic flag draped over her casket.
 * Rudolph has been inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame, the National Track and Field Hall of Fame, the Helms Hall of Fame, the Women's Sports Foundation Hall of Fame, and the Black Athletes Hall of Fame. A street in Clarksville, Tennessee, is named in her honor. In 1987, she was the first woman to receive the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Silver Anniversary Award. In 1993, she was honored as one of "The Great Ones" at the first National Sports Awards.
 * Rudolph also founded the Wilma Rudolph Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting amateur athletics.
 * In 1967, Rudolph was invited by Vice President Hubert Humphrey to work on a program called "Operation Champion." This program took well-known athletes into poor inner-city areas, where they trained young people in sports.
 * She retired from competition in 1963, the same year she graduated from Tennessee State University, and became a second-grade teacher and girls' track coach at her childhood school, Cobb Elementary in Clarksville, where she was paid $200 a month.
 * In 1960, Rudolph went to Corpus Christi, Texas, for the National AAU meet. The winners of the meet were invited to the Olympic Trials, held two weeks later at Texas Christian University. At the trials, she set a world record in the 200 meter race that would stand for the next eight years, and qualified for the Olympic team in the 100 meter, 200 meter, and 4 x 100 relay.
 * In the 100-meter dash and the 200-meter dash, she finished at least three yards in front of her closest competitor. In the 100-meter dash, she tied the world record, and she set a new Olympic record in the 200. As a member of the 4 x 100-meter relay team, she brought the team from behind to first place.

"Rudolph, Wilma." //UXL Encyclopedia of World Biography //. Ed. Laura B. Tyle. Vol. 9. Detroit: UXL, 2003. 1646-1649. //Gale Virtual Reference Library //. Web. 16 Feb. 2012.

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 * Almost every circumstance was stacked against Wilma Rudolph  from the day she was born on June 23, 1940. Her father, Ed Rudolph , had eleven children by a first marriage while his second marriage yielded eight more, of which Wilma  was the fifth. At birth she weighed only four-and-a-half pounds. Her mother, Blanche, a housemaid, feared for Wilma 's survival from the outset. The family lived in tiny St. Bethlehem, Tennessee, a farming community about forty-five miles southeast of Nashville, Tennessee. Shortly after Wilma <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"> was born, the Rudolphs moved to nearby Clarksville, Tennessee, where they lived in town. Her father worked as a porter on railroad cars, and her mother cleaned houses six days a week. Older siblings helped care for the sickly baby who had come into the world prematurely.
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,Times,'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 1.1em;">Burt High School in Clarksville, Mississippi
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,Times,'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 1.1em;">At the tender age of sixteen, she qualified for the Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia, and came home with a bronze medal.
 * <span class="hitHighlite" style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,Times,'Times New Roman',serif; vertical-align: baseline;">Rudolph <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"> entered Tennessee State University in the fall of 1957, with the intention of majoring in elementary education.
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"> The French called her "La Gazelle." Without question, <span class="hitHighlite" style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,Times,'Times New Roman',serif; vertical-align: baseline;">Rudolph <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,Times,'Times New Roman',serif;">'s achievements at the 1960 Olympic Games remain a stand-out performance in the history of Olympic competition.
 * Wilma Rudolph became an instant celebrity in Europe and America. Crowds gathered wherever she was scheduled to run. She was given ticker tape parades, an official invitation to the White House by President John F. Kennedy (1917–1963), and a dizzying round of dinners, awards, and television appearances.
 * <span class="hitHighlite" style="font-family: Georgia,Times,'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 1.1em; vertical-align: baseline;">Rudolph <span style="font-family: Georgia,Times,'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 1.1em;"> made one decision that she stuck to firmly: she refused to participate in the 1964 Olympic games. She felt that she might not be able to duplicate her achievement of 1960, and she did not want to appear to be fading. She retired from amateur athletics in 1963, finished her college work, and became a school teacher and athletic coach. She also became a mother, raising four children on her own after two divorces.
 * She lectured in every part of America and even served in 1991 as an ambassador to the European celebration of the dismantling of the Berlin Wall, the wall that for three decades separated East from West Berlin, Germany. <span class="hitHighlite" style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline;">Rudolph helped to open and run inner-city sports clinics and served as a consultant to university track teams. She also founded her own organization, the <span class="hitHighlite" style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline;">Wilma Rudolph Foundation, dedicated to promoting amateur athletics.
 * Rudolph was a member of the United States Olympic Hall of Fame and the National Track and Field Hall of Fame. She traveled frequently and was well known for her motivational speeches to youngsters.
 * On November 12, 1994, <span class="hitHighlite" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-size: 1.1em; vertical-align: baseline;">Wilma Rudolph died at her home in Brentwood, Tennessee, of a brain tumor. She is survived by two sons, two daughters, six sisters, two brothers, and a truly inspirational legacy.
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #555555; font-family: Georgia,Times,'Times New Roman',serif;">After five years of treatment, <span class="hitHighlite" style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #cc0000; font-family: Georgia,Times,'Times New Roman',serif; vertical-align: baseline;">Wilma <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #555555; font-family: Georgia,Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"> one day stunned her doctors when she removed her leg braces and walked by herself. Soon she was joining her brothers and sisters in basketball games in the <span class="hitHighlite" style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #cc0000; font-family: Georgia,Times,'Times New Roman',serif; vertical-align: baseline;">Rudolph <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #555555; font-family: Georgia,Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"> backyard and running street races against other children her age. "By the time I was 12," she told the //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #555555; font-family: Georgia,Times,'Times New Roman',serif; vertical-align: baseline;">Chicago Tribune, //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #555555; font-family: Georgia,Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"> "I was challenging every boy in our neighborhood at running, jumping, everything."