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  2. Aug 16, 2020 · Wilma Rudolph was born in 1940. The 20th of 22 children, she arrived prematurely, weighing only four and a half pounds. Many people in her small town in Tennessee didn’t think such a tiny baby would live to see her first birthday, especially in a home with no electricity or running water.

  3. Wilma Rudolph was an outstanding athlete. She was the first U.S. woman to win three gold medals for track-and-field events in a single Olympics. People called her the world’s fastest woman. Wilma Glodean Rudolph was born on June 23, 1940, near Clarksville, Tennessee.

    • Early Life and Education
    • Career
    • Later Years
    • Marriage and Family
    • Death and Legacy
    • Awards and Honors

    Rudolph was born prematurely to Blanche Rudolph at 4.5 pounds (2.0 kg) on June 23, 1940, in Saint Bethlehem, Tennessee (now part of Clarksville). She was the twentieth of 22 children from her father Ed Rudolph's two marriages. Shortly after Wilma's birth, her family moved to Clarksville, Tennessee, where she grew up and attended elementary and high...

    Early years

    Rudolph was first introduced to organized sports at Burt High School, the center of Clarksville's African American community. After completing several years of medical treatments to regain the use of her left leg, Rudolph chose to follow in her sister Yvonne's footsteps and began playing basketball in the eighth grade. Rudolph continued to play basketball in high school, where she became a starter on the team and began competing in track. In her sophomore year, Rudolph scored 803 points and s...

    1956 Summer Olympics

    When Rudolph was sixteen and a junior in high school, she attended the 1956 U.S. Olympic track and field team trials in Seattle, Washington, and qualified to compete in the 200-meter individual event at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia. Rudolph, the youngest member of the U.S. Olympic team, was one of five TSU Tigerbelles to qualify for the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. Rudolph was defeated in a preliminary heat of the 200-meter race at the Melbourne Olympic Games, but ran the thir...

    1960 Summer Olympics

    While she was still a sophomore at Tennessee State, Rudolph competed in the U.S. Olympic track and field trials at Abilene Christian University in Abilene, Texas, where she set a world record in the 200-meter dash that stood for eight years. She also qualified for the 1960 Summer Olympicsin the 100-meter dash. At the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, Italy, Rudolph competed in three events on a cinder track in Rome's Stadio Olimpico: the 100- and 200-meter sprints, as well as the 4 × 100-meter re...

    Rudolph did not earn significant money as an amateur athlete and shifted to a career in teaching and coaching after her retirement from track competition. She began as a second-grade teacher at Cobb Elementary School, where she had attended as a child, and coached track at Burt High School, where she had once been a student-athlete herself, but con...

    Rudolph dated boxing legend Muhammad Ali during the early 1960s. She was married twice, with both marriages ending in divorce. On October 14, 1961, she married William "Willie" Ward, a member of the North Carolina Collegeat Durham track team. They divorced in May 1963. After her graduation from Tennessee State in 1963 Rudolph married Robert Eldridg...

    In July 1994 (shortly after her mother's death), Rudolph was diagnosed with brain cancer. She also had been diagnosed with throat cancer. Her condition deteriorated rapidly, and she died on November 12, 1994, at the age of fifty-four, at her home in Brentwood, a suburb of Nashville, Tennessee. Rudolph's legacy lies in her efforts to overcome obstac...

    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 Presid...

  4. Feb 13, 2018 · One of twenty-two children from Clarksville, Tennessee, Wilma became the first woman to win three gold medals at an Olympic Games! Kathleen Krull's detailed story beautifully illustrated by...

    • Feb 13, 2018
    • 150.7K
    • Mrs. Clark's Reading Corner
  5. Wilma Glodean Rudolph was born prematurely on June 23, 1940, in St. Bethlehem, Tennessee. She was the 20th of 22 children her father had between two marriages. She spent most of her childhood in bed—suffering from pneumonia , scarlet fever , and polio .

  6. Apr 17, 2014 · Born in 1940 in Tennessee, Wilma Rudolph was a sickly child who overcame her disabilities through physical therapy and hard work, becoming a gifted runner. Rudolph became the first American...

    • Apr 17, 2014
    • 369.5K
    • Biography
  7. A native of Clarksville, Wilma Rudolph was one of the most celebrated female athletes of all-time. Her story is an inspirational one. She was born prematurely, weighing only 4.5 pounds — and the doctor doubted she would survive.

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