╒PARA ═PAR@ ` àTEXT ` wRudolph, Wilma Glodean1940╨1994athleteBorn in St. Bethlehem, Tennessee, on June 23, 1940, Wilma Rudolph grew up in Clarksville, Tennessee. A series of illnesses in infancy left her without the use of one leg, and only constant exercise and care, including her mother╒s therapeutic massages, enabled her finally to learn to walk when she was eight. Three years later she had progressed far enough to discard her specially reinforced shoe, and by the time she was in high school she had made herself into an outstanding athlete. In her sophomore year she set a state record for points scored in a season in girls╒ basketball. She soon came under the tutelage of the track coach at Tennessee State University in Nashville, who helped her compile a remarkable high school track record and took over her coaching full time when she entered the university in 1957. Ill health in 1958, an injury in 1959, and surgery with postoperative complications early in 1960 seriously interfered with her training, but later in 1960 she qualified for the U.S. Olympic team. At the games in Rome Rudolph won the 100-meter dash in 11 seconds, a time disallowed for a world record because of excessive following wind; won the 200-meter dash in the Olympic record time of 23.2 seconds; and anchored the victorious U.S. 400-meter relay team, which had set a world record of 44.4 seconds in a trial heat. She was the first American woman runner to win three gold medals at a single Olympics, and her strikingly fluid style made her a particular favorite with spectators and journalists. At the New York Athletic Club meet at Madison Square Garden in February 1961 she broke her own world indoor record for the 60-yard dash, setting a new mark of 6.8 seconds, and she followed with a world record 7.8 seconds in the 70-yard dash. At the women╒s AAU indoor championship meet in Columbus, Ohio, in March she won the 100-yard dash in 10.8 seconds, a U.S. record, and set a world record of 25.0 seconds in a trial heat of the 220-yard dash. At a meet in Louisville, Kentucky, a short time later she lopped 0.6 second off the 26-year-old outdoor record of 8.2 seconds for the 70-yard dash. In July she ran a winning 10.8 seconds in the 100-yard at the U.S. women╒s outdoor championship meet in Gary, Indiana; set a new world record of 11.2 seconds in the 100-meter at a meet in West Germany; and won the 100-meter (in 11.3 seconds) in the U.S.-U.S.S.R. meet in Moscow. She won the Amateur Athletic Union╒s 1961 Sullivan Award as the year╒s outstanding amateur athlete. In Los Angeles in July 1962 she repeated her winning time in the 100-yard in the U.S. women╒s outdoor meet. She retired from competition a short time later.After graduating from Tennessee State University in 1963 she coached the university╒s women╒s track team. In 1967 she worked on Operation Champion with Vice President Hubert Humphrey to provide children and teenagers in the nation╒s largest ghettos with sports training from star athletes. She founded the Wilma Rudolph Foundation in Indianapolis in 1982 to encourage community-based track and field programs.Rudolph published an autobiography, Wilma, in 1977. She was named to the National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1974, the International Sports Hall of Fame in 1980, and the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 1983. In 1993 she received the National Sports Award. She died of cancer in Nashville on November 12, 1994. &styl ` ! ¬ 5¬ ! 5¬ * !I + 5¬ , !I Ü 5¬ ¢ !I
