Well Behaved Women Rarely Make History, Volume XIII

Monday, August 4, 2008
In honor of the upcoming summer Olympics, today's ill-behaved woman is Wilma Rudolph, Olympic Gold Medalist and heroine.

Wilma Rudolph was born on June 23,1940 in St. Bethlehem, a part of Clarksville, Tennessee, twentieth of twenty-two children of Ed and Blanche Rudolph. Diagnosed with polio at the age of 4, she was nursed back to health by her mother, and by the age of 12, she was able to walk normally.

Mentored by Tennessee State Track and Field coach Edward Temple, Wilma competed in the Melbourne Olympics in 1956, and earned three gold medals in the 1960 Rome games. This victory was especially poignant for her, as she wanted to pay tribute to her inspiration, African-American Olympian Jesse Owens.

Wilma later went on to a career in education and raised a family. She died in November 1994 at the age of 54.

Run, Wilma, run. You are truly ill-behaved and inspirational.

2 comments:

Random Michelle K said...

I meant to mention earlier that I heard a bit on her over the weekend (maybe on the Bob Edwards Show?) and she sounds like she was a phenomenal woman, and I was hoping you'd do a piece on her.

Amazing woman.

Random Michelle K said...

Some of the other things he mentioned was that she was also a single mother (when she ran in the olympics), and then went back to school to get her high school degree.