Wilma Rudolph Biography

Wilma G. Rudolph Biography

Wilma Glodean Rudolph was born on June 23, 1940 in Saint Bethlehem, Tennessee, United States. On November 12, 1994, at age 54, she died of cancer in her home in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1963, Rudolph was granted a full scholarship to Tennessee State University where she received her bachelor's degree in elementary education. After her athletic career, Rudolph worked as a teacher at Cobb Elementary School, coaching track at Burt High School and became a sports commentator on national television.

Wilma Rudolph was an American athlete and an Olympic champion. Rudolph was considered the fastest woman in the world in the 1960s. In Rome, Rudolph became the first American woman to win three gold medals in track and field during a single Olympic Games. She elevated women's track to a major presence in the United States. As a member of the black community, she is also regarded as a civil rights and women's rights pioneer. Rudolph won the James E. Sullivan Award, an award for the top amateur athlete in the United States, and visited President John F. Kennedy. She was voted into the National Black Sports and Entertainment Hall of Fame in 1973 and the National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1974. She was inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 1983, honored with the National Sports Award in 1993, and inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1994.Rudolph became an international star due to the first international television coverage of the Olympics that year. People nicknamed her “The Black Gazelle”, “The Tornado” and “Black pearl”.

Rudolph was married twice. On October 14, 1961, she married Willie Ward, divorce him 17 months later. In 1963 she married her high school sweetheart Robert Eldridge, with whom she already had a daughter born in 1958. They had four children: Yolanda, Djuanna, Robert Jr. and Xurry. She divorced Eldridge after 17 years of marriage and returned to Indianapolis where she raised her children and hosted a local TV show. At the time of her death, she had four children, eight grandchildren, and many nieces and nephews. In 1997, Governor Don Sundquist proclaimed that June 23 be known as "Wilma Rudolph Day" in Tennessee.

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