WILMA RUDOLPH Track Star Born in 1940 - Died in 1994 Enter your search terms Submit search form   Web gardenofpraise.com

When Wilma Rudolph was four years old, she had a disease called polio * which causes people to be crippled and unable to walk. To make matters worse, her family was poor and could not afford good medical care. She was from a large family. She was the 20th child of 22 children. Her father was a railroad porter * and her mother was a maid.

Her mother decided she would do everything she could to help Wilma to walk again. The doctors had said she would not be able to walk. She took her every week on a long bus trip to a hospital to receive therapy * . It didn't help, but the doctors said she needed to give Wilma a massage * every day by rubbing her legs. She taught the brothers and sisters how to do it, and they also rubbed her legs four times a day.

By the time she was 8, she could walk with a leg brace. After that, she used a high-topped shoe to support her foot. She played basketball with her brothers every day.

Three years later, her mother came home to find her playing basketball by herself bare-footed. She didn't even have to use the special shoe.

A track coach encouraged her to start running. She ran so well that during her senior year in high school, she qualified for the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Australia. She won a bronze medal in the women's 400-meter relay.

In 1959, she qualified for the 1960 Olympic Games * in Rome by setting a world's record in the 200-meter race. At the Olympics that year she won two gold medals; one for the 100-meter race and one for the 200-meter race.

Then she sprained her ankle, but she ignored the pain and helped her team to win another gold medal for the 400-meter relay! In the picture above you see the three gold medals she won at the Rome Olympics.

She retired from running when she was 22 years old, but she went on to coach women's track teams and encourage young people.

She died of brain cancer in 1994. Even though she is no longer alive, her influence still lives on in the lives of many young people who look up to her.

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Wilma Unlimited: How Wilma Rudolph Became the World's Fastest Woman By Kathleen Krull / Harcourt Brace The dramtic and inspiring true story of runner Wilma Rudolph, who overcame incredible odds to become one of the worlds finest athletes. Before Wilma was 5 yrs old, polio had paralyzed her left leg. Everyone said she would never walk again. But Wilma refused to believe it. Not only would she walk again, she vowed, she'd run. It was hard work, but at last she did run- all the way to the Olympics, where she became the first American woman to earn 3 gold medals in a single Olympics.

African American Awareness for Young Children: A Curriculum By Evia Davis / Good Year Books Here are four, exciting teaching units you can incorporate easily into your existing early childhood curriculum as either supplemental or core material. These special units expose children to literature that helps develop an appreciation of the African American culture and provides role models with whom they can identify. By recognizing the importance of cultural awareness in the development of a child's self-concept, these cultural experiences benefit all the children in the class! Includes complete lesson plans with poems, songs, and book suggestions, hands-on activities, pages to color and take home, and a classroom reproducible excerpt from the "I Have a Dream" speech. Grades PreK-1.

From Word Central's Student Dictionary
by Merriam - Webster
(Pronunciation note: the schwa sound is shown by &)

polio (poliomyelitis)
Pronunciation: "pO-lE-"O-"mI-&-'lIt-&s
Function: noun
: an infectious virus disease marked by inflammation of nerve cells in the spinal cord accompanied by fever and often paralysis and wasting of muscles -- called also infantile paralysis

porter
Pronunciation: 'pOrt-&r
Function: noun
1 : a person who carries baggage (as at a hotel)
2 : a railroad employee who waits on passengers....

therapy
Pronunciation: 'ther-&-pE
Function: noun
: the treatment of disease especially by massage, exercise, water, or heat

massage
Pronunciation: m&-'säzh, -'säj
Function: noun
: treatment (as of the body) by rubbing, stroking, kneading, or tapping

Olympic Games
Function: noun plural
: a series of international athletic contests held in a different country once every four years

Biographies in this Series

Presidents of the United States	George Washington 1st U.S. President	John Adams 2nd U.S. President	Thomas Jefferson 3rd U.S.President
	James Monroe 5th U.S. President	Andrew Jackson 7th U.S. President	Abraham Lincoln 16th U.S.President
	Franklin D. Roosevelt 32nd U.S. President	John F. Kennedy 35th U.S. President	James Madison 4th U.S. President
	Theodore Roosevelt 26th U.S. President	Ronald Reagan 40th U.S. President
American Patriots	Benjamin Franklin patriot and statesman	Francis Scott Key Star Spangled Banner	Deborah Sampson woman soldier in the Revolutionary War
World Leaders	Constantine Roman Emperor	Alexander the Great conqueror	Winston Churchill British Prime Minister
Inventors	Alexander Graham Bell telephone	Johann Gutenberg printing press	Cyrus McCormick mechanical reaper
	The Wright Brothers first airplane	Henry Ford Automaker	Thomas A. Edison electric light bulb
	Sequoyah Cherokee alphabet	Nikola Tesla 700 patents	.
Explorers	Christopher Columbus explorer	Meriwether Lewis explorer	Robert Peary Arctic explorer
	John Muir Naturalist	Matthew Henson Arctic Explorer	Sir Edmund Hillary Mr.Everest
	Kit Carson Indian agent	"Johnny Appleseed" orchardist	.
Women who made a difference	Clara Barton founder of the Red Cross	Helen Keller overcame blindness & deafness	Florence Nightingale founder of nursing profession
	Joan of Arc religious and military leader	Amelia Earhart Aviator	Annie Oakley sharpshooter
	Susan B. Anthony Suffragette	Elizabeth Keckly Seamstress	Harriet Tubman deliverer of slaves
	Anne Frank Diarist	Eleanor Roosevelt Humanitarian	.
Scientists	George Washington Carver botanist and educator	Sir Isaac Newton explained gravity and properties of light	Marie Curie scientist, physicist
	Louis Pasteur Biologist	Albert Einstein physicist, genius	Galileo Astronomer, physicist
	Lise Meitner Physicist	.	.
Educators	Noah Webster writer of dictionary	Booker T. Washington leader and educator	Aristotle Greek philosopher
Physicians	Hippocrates father of medicine	Walter Reed discovered cause of yellow fever	Albert Schweitzer humanitarian
Religious Leaders	Increase Mather Salem witch trials	.
Athletes	Lou Gehrig baseball player	Wilma Rudolph Olympic gold medal winner	Tiger Woods golfer
	Michael Phelps Olympic swimmer	.	.
Civil Rights Leaders	Martin Luther King civil rights leader	Rosa Parks bus desegregation	Sojourner Truth Former slave
	Frederick Douglass Abolitionist	Mary Ann Shadd Cary Civil rights leader	James Forten Inventor, abolitionist
Composers	Beethoven composer
Artists	John James Audubon artist and naturalist	Gutzon Borglum sculptor, Mount Rushmore	Ansel Adams photographer

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