REMARKABLE WILMA RUDOLPH - A TRIBUTE

Wilma Rudolph

I always think of running champion Wilma Rudolph (June 23, 1940-November 12, 1994) as the most graceful sprint runner of all time.  Once she hit her stride, she would seem to just glide and not the short choppy steps of most sprinters (see picture below: Madison Square Garden).

She was the first American woman to get three gold medals in one Olympics - the Rome Olympics of 1960.  She was an unlikely running champion to say the least.  She was born prematurely at 4-1/2 lbs and had to survive two bouts of polio and Scarlett fever by the time she was 12.*  She also won a bronze star running in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics at the age of 16.  You wonder how her deformed leg ever got straightened out (see picture).  She was the fastest women sprinter of her day and won all sorts of medals at various track meets.  She set an Olympic record in the 100 m dash

Wilma Rudolph during a 50 m dash at Madison
Square Garden in 1961

at the Rome Olympics only to be called wind enhanced and discredited, but later she set another world record in the 200 m dash that was confirmed.  And this was after she had a child in 1958.  She retired from track at the age of 22 after giving birth to three more children.  Her early death was due to a brain tumor and throat cancer.

Wilma Rudolph wins the 100 m dash in the
Rome Olympics, 1960

She was named the top athlete for the 20th century by Sports Illustrated in the year 2000.  She even had a high school  --- in  GERMANY --- named for her (Wilma Rudolph Oberschule).  For other honors see the reference.

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilma_Rudolph