"The Tornado:" Wilma Rudolph

A fiercely determined Wilma Rudolph entered the 1960 Summer Olympics. Her hard work and training paid off. She competed in 3 track events: the 100-meter, 200-meter sprints, and 4 x 100-meter relay. Rudolph won gold medals in all three races. She became the first American woman to do so in a single Olympics. Rudolph’s achievement made her the most celebrated Black woman in track and field.

Born in 1940, Wilma Glodean Rudolph grew up in Clarksville, Tennessee where she attended elementary and high school. As a child she contacted polio and wore braces until age 12. Despite her earlier challenges, Rudolph excelled in sports, mainly basketball and track. She set a record by scoring 803 points in high school girls’ basketball. C.C. Gray, Rudolph’s high school coach, nicknamed her Skeeter. Ed Temple, Tennessee State University’s track and field coach, noticed her athletic ability and invited her to join a summer training camp for track and field at Tennessee State University. Rudolph participated as a sophomore in high school in her first major track event at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.

At the age of 16, Rudolph attended the 1956 Olympic track and field team trials in Seattle, Washington. She qualified to compete in the 200-meter individual event at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia. She was the youngest member of the U.S. Olympic team. Rudolph, along with her team, won the bronze medal and finished with a world record of 44.9 seconds. The record remained unbroken for 8 years.

Rudolph enrolled in Tennessee State University in 1958. Rudolph won a silver medal in the 100-meter individual event and a gold medal in the 4 x 100-meter relay at the Pan American Games in Chicago, Illinois. While a sophomore at TSU, Rudolph participated in the 1960 Olympic Summer Games in Rome. She won gold medals in the 100 meter and 200-meter races. She also served as the anchor for the 4 x 100-meter relays. All the athletes on the relay team were Tennessee State University track and field members coached by Ed Temple. Rudolph’s performance earned her the nickname “Tornado,” the fastest woman on earth.

Rudolph continued to make history as a public personality following the 1960 Olympics. She became one of the most visible Black athletes in the country. The United States Information Agency made a ten-minute documentary titled Wilma Rudolph: Olympic Champion. She also made appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show, a popular talk show of the era. She retired in 1961 and completed her BA degree in Education at Tennessee State University. She received numerous honors, including induction into the National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1971, the International Sports Hall of Fame in 1980, and the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 1983. A movie was released based on Rudolph’s life in 1977, named “Wilma: The Life of Wilma Rudolph.” Rudolph became the first woman to receive the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s Silver Anniversary Award in 1990. She died of a brain tumor on November 12, 1994. Wilma Rudolph left behind a record of Black excellence in track and field.