Wilma's Very Fine Week: A journey to the olympics
Wilma Rudolph was born a very sickly child, suffering through cases of pneumonia, scarlet fever and then polio — the latter of which left her without feeling in her left leg and foot. She wore a leg brace until she was 12 years old.
Yet, Rudolph went on to help the U.S. win a bronze medal in the 1956 Olympics — at age 16. And then, four years later — 65 years ago this week — she became the first U.S. woman to win three gold medals over one very fine week at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome.
Before Rome
Wilma Rudolph was born in Clarksville, Tennessee, on June 23, 1940. She was the 20th of her father’s 22 children across two marriages.
Rudolph’s frequent illnesses required leg braces, leg massages four times a day and frequent bus trips to a hospital in Nashville, 50 miles away. Because of this, her mother home-schooled her through the second grade.
Over the years, Rudolph’s health gradually improved. She played basketball and ran track and became quite good at both. Her coach called her “Skeeter” — “You’re little, you’re fast and you always get in my way,” he told her.
At age 14, Rudolph was recruited to compete in a summer track program at Tennessee State University in Nashville. As a high school junior, she earned a spot on the U.S. Olympic team at the 1956 Summer games in Melbourne, Australia. She ran the third leg of the 4x100- meter relay along with three of her Tennessee State friends, winning a bronze medal.
During her senior year of high school, Rudolph gave birth to her first child, Yolanda. Later that year, she enrolled at Tennessee State on a work-study scholarship program — and, of course, ran track. By this time, Rudolph had been working and training with TSU runners for more than two years.
Rome, 1956, Thursday Sept. 1
100-meter preliminaries
Even with a swollen ankle, Rudolph won two 100-meter preliminaries. Photo sourced from the Dutch National Archives.
While warming up the day before she is scheduled to compete, Rudolph — just 20 years old but already competing in her second Summer Olympics — steps into a hole in the infield of the practice track and twists her ankle.
The next morning, with her ankle swollen and discolored, Rudolph easily beats her four opponents in the first round with a speed of 11.5 seconds and then edges out six more hopefuls in the quarterfinals — also with a time of 11.5 seconds. Rudolph ends her first day of competition as the fastest on the track.
Friday, Sept. 2
100-meter semifinals and finals
Rudolph wins her semifinal heat in world record time. Photo sourced from WikiMedia Commons.
In the first heat of the semifinals of the women’s 100 meters, Rudolph ties a world record of 11.3 seconds. She wins the final in 11.0 seconds but with a wind of 6.15 mph at her back, she isn’t credited with setting a world-record time.
Rudolph is the first U.S. woman to win gold in that event since Helen Stephens in the 1936 Games in Berlin. Because these are the first Olympics to be televised — on tape delay — in the U.S., Rudolph has already become a huge star back in the States. But she isn’t done yet.
Saturday, Sept. 3
200-meter preliminaries
Rudolph won the day’s sixth and final first-round heat with an Olympic record. Photo sourced from the International Olympic Committee.
After her two eye-popping performances the day before, one might expect Rudolph to be a bit tired on Sept. 3. Instead, she runs her opening heat in the women’s 200 meters in 23.2 seconds: an Olympic record.
By this point, the European press has taken note of Rudolph, referring to her as “La Gazelle Noir,” or “the Black Gazelle.”
Monday, Sept. 5
200-meter semifinal and final
Rudolph wins her semifinal 200m race. Photo sourced from the International Olympic Committee.
After a day’s rest, Rudolph is back in action, running a time of 23.7 in the semifinals of the women’s 200 meters.
She wins the finals in 24.0 — by nearly half a second this time, and this time, in the face of a heavy wind — to collect her second gold medal of the Rome Games.
Wednesday, Sept. 7
4x100 relay preliminaries
Rudolph finishes in world-record time in the first round of the 4x100 relay. Photo sourced from the International Olympic Committee.
As she had done four years before in Melbourne, Rudolph runs the 4x100-meter relay with three of her “TigerBelles” teammates from Tennessee State: Martha Hudson, Lucinda Williams and Barbara Jones. Rudolph runs the final, crucial leg of the race — the anchor.
The Americans set a world record in their first-round heat with a time of 44.4 seconds.
Thursday, Sept. 8
4x100 relay final
Rudolph and the TigerBelles receive their gold medals. Photo from WikiMedia Commons.
In the 110-degree heat of Rome’s Stadio Olimpico, disaster very nearly strikes: After three legs of the 4x100 relay, Germany is leading by 2 yards. Rudolph reaches for the baton from Jones and very nearly drops it.
Rudolph recovers and sails past German anchor runner Jutta Heine to win by 3 yards in 44.5 seconds. Rudolph would write later that after the medal ceremony, “I was mobbed. People were jumping all over me, putting microphones in my face, pounding my back. I couldn’t believe it.”
After Rome
Rudolph was named Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year in both 1960 and 1961.
She retired from competition shortly afterward and became a teacher and coach and ran a community center.
Rudolph married in 1961, was divorced two years later and then married her daughter’s father. They would have three more children over a 17-year marriage.
In 1977, Rudolph wrote an autobiography that was turned into a TV film starring Shirley Jo Finney, Cicely Tyson and Denzel Washington.
In 1980, Tennessee State Univer-
sity named its indoor track facility after Rudolph.
In July 1994, Rudolph was diagnosed with brain and throat cancer. She died on Nov. 12, 1994.
In 1995, Tennessee State named a six-story women’s dormitory the Wilma G. Rudolph Residence Center. In 1996, A life-sized statue of her was placed in Clarksville’s downtown riverwalk.
In 2004, the U.S. Postal Service issued a 23-cent stamp featuring Rudolph.
Photo sourced from USPS.