Ten Greatest American Summer Olympians: No. 9 Wilma Rudolph
Wilma Rudolph was one of the strongest women to ever represent the United States in the Summer Olympics, and her strength had nothing to do with her physical capabilities. She also proved that overcoming hardships is the surest way to ensure future success.
Rudolph was born in Tennessee in 1940 and faced adversity very early in life. She contracted double pneumonia when she was four, which was followed quickly by a battle with scarlet fever. Her family believed she wouldn’t survive, but the tough little girl managed to pull through. Then, like another of our honorees, she was diagnosed with polio. She had to wear a thick brace on her left leg until she was nine. While other kids her age ran around, she couldn’t. But like most situations in her life, she persevered and emerged stronger.
After years of working through her physical limitations, Rudolph grew to 5-foot-11 and blossomed as an athlete. She became a phenomenal high school basketball player and also discovered track. At 15, Rudolph entered her first major track meet. She proceeded to win every heat and final, earning a spot on the 1956 Olympic team in the process.
At just 16 years old, she made her Olympic debut at the 1956 Melbourne Games and came home with a bronze medal in the 4×100 meter relay. I’m fairly certain Wilma had the best story when it came to “what I did this summer” day in high school.
Rudolph went on to dominate AAU track for the next few years and by the time the 1960 Rome Olympics rolled around, she was the world’s best female sprinter. In Rome, at just 20 years old, she became the first American woman to win three gold medals in track and field during a single Olympic Games. Rudolph won the 100 meter dash in 11.18 seconds, which would have been a world record, but it was ruled to be wind-aided. She had tied the world record of 11.41 seconds in the first semifinal. She was so calm and cool about the Olympic experience that she actually took a nap before the 100 final.
Rudolph also won the 200 meters in an Olympic record 23.2 seconds and was part of the world record-smashing United States 4×100 meter relay team, which took the gold in 44.5 seconds.
It was one of the most dominant performances in Olympic history and Rudolph immediately became a worldwide superstar. The Italians nicknamed her La Gazzella Nera (The Black Gazelle) and the French called her Le Perle Noire (The Black Pearl).
Rudolph became a sensation not just for her speed and grace, but also for her stunning beauty. A few months after the Olympics, Rudolph was in Washington D.C. to receive an award and President John F. Kennedy invited her to the White House for a meeting. Upon being introduced to the track star, the perpetually cool Kennedy was so captivated by her that when he went to sit down next to her in his favorite chair, he missed.
Still not convinced? There was one particularly loquacious 18-year-old on the United States Olympic team in 1960. He talked non-stop and even annoyed many of his own teammates in Rome. But he was so intimidated by Rudolph’s beauty that he became incredibly shy and could barely speak in her presence. That 18-year-old Olympian went by the name Cassius Clay. She was so mesmerizing that even “The Greatest” was overwhelmed around her.
Rudolph was named the Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year in 1960 and 1961, while also garnering the 1961 Sullivan Award as the nation’s outstanding amateur athlete.
She retired from track competition in 1962 at just 22 years old. Rudolph became a good-will ambassador to French West Africa, then worked as a traveling lecturer, a radio host and a coach at Depauw University in Indiana. Rudolph’s success inspired an entire generation of women and helped the push for women’s rights and civil rights.
In a great loss for America, Rudolph died after battling brain cancer for months in 1994. She was just 54 years old. While she has passed on, no one should ever forget the summer if 1960 and how she captivated the globe. The path she blazed for future generations of female athletes had a monumental impact on sports that is still felt today.
Previous Entries: