Wilma rudolph biography pictures

(1940-1994)

Who Was Wilma Rudolph?

Wilma Rudolph was a sickly child who had to wear a brace on her left leg. She overcame her disabilities to compete in the 1956 Summer Olympic Games, and in 1960, she became the first American woman to win three gold medals in track and field at a single Olympics. Later in life, she formed the Wilma Rudolph Foundation to promote amateur athletics.

Quick Facts

FULL NAME: Wilma Glodean Rudolph
BORN: June 23, 1940
BIRTHPLACE: Saint Bethlehem, Clarksville, TN
DEATH: November 12, 1994
SPOUSE: Robert Eldridge (m. 1963-1980), William Ward (m. 1961-1963)
CHILDREN: Djuanna Eldridge, Yolanda Eldridge
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Cancer

Early Life

Rudolph was born prematurely on June 23, 1940, in St. Bethlehem, Tennessee, the 20th of 22 children born to dad Ed across his two marriages. She went on to become a pioneering African American track and field champion, but the road to victory was not an easy one for Rudolph. Stricken with double pneumonia, scarlet fever and polio as a child, she had problems with her left leg and had to wear a brace. It was with great determination and the help of physical therapy that she was able to overcome her disabilities.

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Despite being bad as a child she would not ever walk bone up, Wilma Rudolph relentlessly track her dreams becoming sting international point in the right direction and meadow star. Consider the height of crack up career, “the fastest spouse in picture world” stimulated her stand to foolish light federation social issues.

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Wilma Rudolph

Olympic Gold Medalist
1940-1994

Wilma Glodean Rudolph was born on June 23, 1940, in a region of Tennessee known, at the time, as St. Bethlehem, which later became a part of Clarksville. Rudolph was born into a large family, being the 20^th of her father’s 22 children. Her father, Ed, worked as a railroad porter while her mother, Blanche, worked as a maid.

Born prematurely, Wilma weighed only four and a half pounds at the time of her birth. The remainder of her childhood would follow a similar pattern of misfortune. At the age of 4, she fell victim to pneumonia as well as the polio virus, leaving her temporarily paralyzed. Her mother began taking her to a physician in Nashville who incorporated physical therapy into her treatment. Blanche was told that massaging her daughter’s legs four times per day would hasten the healing process, but due to Blanche’s busy schedule, she had to instruct her other children how to perform the massage, resulting in teamwork throughout the family in healing Wilma’s paralyzed left leg. With the combined efforts of her family, she overcame the paralysis and was walking with a leg brace at the age of 8; she had to wear specially made orthopedic shoes for a few years after the brace was removed. In