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WILMA RUDOLPH Track Star Born in 1940 - Died in 1994

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.

This biography by Patsy Stevens, a retired teacher, was written in 2001.

A frequent question: "Who wrote this biography and when was it written?" Look on this Reference Citations Chart.

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PRINTABLES Alphabetical Order Wilma Rudolph Word Search Wilma Rudolph Crossword Puzzle Wilma Rudolph - Word Scramble Wilma Rudolph - Word Match * Wilma Rudolph Study Sheet Worksheet Color a picture of Wilma Rudolph Print Wilma Rudolph Test

RESEARCH LINKS

Wilma Rudolph Women in History Wilma Rudolph Biography.com Wilma Rudolph Black History Month Wilma Rudolph Encyclopedia of World Biography Wilma Unlimited Wilma Rudolph lesson plan from Kim's Korner Wilma Rudolph at Wikipedia Wilma Rudolph Chronology My Hero, Wilma Rudolph Wilma Rudolph, ESPN Wilma Rudolph, Voice of America Wilma Rudolph Quotes Wilma Rudolph Tennessee History for Kids Wilma Rudolph printable book Wilma Rudolph Quotes Famous Quotes by QuoteDepot.Net From Word Central's Student Dictionary by Merriam - Webster (Pronunciation note: the schwa sound is shown by ə) polio (poliomyelitis) Pronunciation: "pO-lE-"O-"mI-ə-'lIt-əs 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-ər Function: noun 1 : a person who carries baggage (as at a hotel) 2 : a railroad employee who waits on passengers.... therapy Pronunciation: 'ther-ə-pE Function: noun : the treatment of disease especially by massage, exercise, water, or heat massage Pronunciation: mə - sahzh', - sahj' 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 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. A LIBRARY OF ONLINE BOOKS and BOOK PREVIEWS Wilma Rudolph (A&E) by Amy Ruth (selected pages) Order here Wilma Rudolph by Corinne J. Naden, Rose Blue (selected pages) Order here Stick to It!: The Story of Wilma Rudolph (Spyglass Books) by David Conrad (selected pages) Order here Wilma Rudolph, Newmaster Reading Comprehension, Homework Helpers, Grade 3 by Mary Newmaster(selected pages Order here Life-Skills for Middle School, Vol. 3 (Learner's Workbook) by ARISE Foundation (selected pages) Order here Preview these Amazon books using the links below. Wilma Rudolph by Victoria Sherrow(selected pages) Wilma Rudolph by Thomas Streissguth(selected pages) Wilma Rudolph Champion Athlete by Tom Biracree (selected pages) Wilma Rudolph Olympic Track Star by Lee Engler (selected pages) Wilma Rudolph by Maureen Smith (selected pages) Wilma Rudolph by Jo Harper (selected pages) Wilma Rudolph (First Biographies) by Eric Braun (selected pages)

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Most Recent Comments   ( See more comments on this page )

2013-02-07 wow! dreams can come true! this proves it Anonymous

2012-01-26 she is a good women Chole

2011-03-07 Wilma Rudolph was an Amazing woman she was very inspirational....(:

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Biographies in this Series

Reference citations information for these biographies

Presidents of the United States	George Washington	John Adams	Thomas Jefferson	James Madison	James Monroe	Andrew Jackson
	Martin Van Buren	Abraham Lincoln	Theodore Roosevelt	Franklin D. Roosevelt	Harry S. Truman	Dwight D. Eisenhower
	John F. Kennedy	Lyndon B. Johnson	Jimmy Carter	Ronald Reagan	Barack Obama	Calvin Coolidge
American Patriots	Benjamin Franklin	Francis Scott Key	Deborah Sampson	Molly Pitcher
World Leaders	Constantine	Alexander the Great	Winston Churchill
Inventors	Alexander Graham Bell	Johann Gutenberg	Cyrus McCormick	The Wright Brothers	Henry Ford	Thomas A. Edison
	Sequoyah	Nikola Tesla	Michael Faraday	Dean Kamen	Jack Kilby	Leonardo Da Vinci
	Donald O'Neal
Explorers	Christopher Columbus	Meriwether Lewis	Robert Peary	John Muir	Matthew Henson	Sir Edmund Hillary
	Kit Carson	Johnny Appleseed	Daniel Boone
Women who made a difference	Clara Barton	Helen Keller	Florence Nightingale	Joan of Arc	Amelia Earhart	Annie Oakley
	Susan B. Anthony	Elizabeth Keckly	Harriet Tubman	Anne Frank	Eleanor Roosevelt	Madam C.J. Walker
	Sadako Sasaki	Henrietta Lacks
Scientists	George Washington Carver	Sir Isaac Newton	Marie Curie	Louis Pasteur	Albert Einstein	Galileo
	Lise Meitner	Norman Borlaug	Benjamin Banneker
Educators	Noah Webster	Booker T. Washington	Aristotle	Mary McLeod Bethune
Physicians	Hippocrates	Walter Reed	Albert Schweitzer
Religious Leaders	George Muller	Increase Mather
Athletes	Lou Gehrig	Wilma Rudolph	Tiger Woods	Michael Phelps
Civil Rights Leaders	Martin Luther King	Rosa Parks	Sojourner Truth	Frederick Douglass	Mary Ann Shadd Cary	James Forten
	Gandhi	César Chávez	William Wilberforce	Nelson Mandela
Composers	Beethoven	Mozart
Authors	Laura Ingalls Wilder	Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)	Ernest Hemingway	Greg Mortenson	Phillis Wheatley
Artists	John James Audubon	Gutzon Borglum	Ansel Adams	Dale Chihuly	Van Gogh	Michelangelo
	Rembrandt	Grandma Moses	Cassatt	Renoir	Cezanne	Rockwell

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