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Wilma Glodean Rudolph was born June 23, 1940, in Clarksville, Tennessee. She was born the twentieth of twenty-two children to Blanche and Ed Rudolph. |
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She suffered from a crippling disease called polio. Blanche Rudolph was told that her daughter would never walk, but she was determined that her daughter would be like any other child. She found out her daughter could be treated at Fisk University of Nashville. Even though it was fifty miles away, Blanche took her there on a bus twice a week for two years until Wilma could walk with the help of a leg brace. By the age of twelve, she could walk without crutches, corrective shoes or braces. |
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| She took time off from her school life and qualified for the 1956 Olympics at the age of sixteen. She won a bronze medal in the 4x4 relay.
She made history on September 7, 1960, in Rome when she became the first woman to ever win three gold medals when she ran the 100- meter dash, 200-meter dash, and the anchor on the 400- meter team relay.
She died Saturday, November 12, 1994 in Nashville, Tennessee of brain cancer.
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| Since her school did not have the funding for a track team, she played basketball in high school. Her coach, Clinton Gray, did not put her in a game for three years. In her sophomore year she started at point guard. She set state records for scoring and led her team to the state championship. Ed Temple, the coach for the Tennessee State University Tigerbells track team, saw her and invited her to come to a summer camp. When she graduated from high school she received a full scholarship to Tennessee State University. She married Robert Elridge in 1963 after high school graduation. They had four children - Yolanda, Djuanna, Robert Jr., and Xurry. Later they divorced. |
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