50 Fun Facts About Wilma Rudolph

At which Olympic Games did Wilma Rudolph win her three gold medals?

She won the 100 metres, the 200 metres and the 4 x 100 relay, becoming the first American woman to take three golds at one Games.

Which childhood disease left Rudolph wearing a leg brace until she was 12?

She had also survived pneumonia and scarlet fever, and lost strength in her left leg and foot.

Rudolph was born prematurely in 1940 in Saint Bethlehem, now part of which Tennessee city?

She weighed 4.5 pounds at birth; her father was a railway porter and her mother a maid.

Rudolph was the 20th of how many children from her father's two marriages?

Her siblings later gave her massage treatments four times a day to help her weakened leg.

Rudolph and her mother took weekly bus trips for treatment at which Black medical college in Nashville?

There was little medical care available to African Americans in Clarksville in the 1940s, and Nashville was about 50 miles away.

What nickname did Rudolph's high school coach C. C. Gray give her because she moved so fast?

It was short for mosquito; she scored 803 points in one season, a state record for high school girls.

In which sport did Rudolph first star at Burt High School before turning to track?

She followed her sister Yvonne onto the court in eighth grade and became a starter.

Which Tennessee State coach spotted the teenage Rudolph and invited her to his summer track camp at 14?

He coached the Tigerbelles for 44 years and led the US Olympic women's track team in 1960 and 1964.

What was the nickname of the Tennessee State women's track team Rudolph ran with?

Forty of them went on to represent their countries at the Olympics under Temple, who won 34 national titles.

After her first summer camp, Rudolph won all nine events she entered at an AAU meet in which city?

She had lost her first major race, at Alabama's Tuskegee Institute, and vowed to keep competing.

How old was Rudolph at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, as the youngest member of the US team?

She was a junior in high school and one of five Tigerbelles to make the team.

What medal did Rudolph win in the 4 x 100 relay at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics?

The all-Tigerbelle team matched the world record of 44.9 seconds; Australia won with Betty Cuthbert on the anchor leg.

In which event did Wilma Rudolph set an eight-year world record at the 1960 US Olympic trials?

Her time was 22.9 seconds; she was still a sophomore at Tennessee State.

Rudolph's 11.0-second win in the Rome 100 metres was not credited as a world record. Why?

The tailwind of 2.75 metres per second exceeded the 2 m/s limit.

Rudolph was the first American woman to win the Olympic 100 metres since which athlete at the 1936 Games?

The gap was 24 years; Rudolph's own inspiration was Berlin star Jesse Owens.

What Olympic record time did Rudolph set in the opening heat of the 200 metres in Rome?

She won the final in a slower 24.0 seconds and was hailed as the fastest woman in history.

Which leg did Rudolph run in the Rome 4 x 100 relay final?

She nearly dropped the baton after the pass from Lucinda Williams but overtook Germany's runner to win.

In the Rome 4 x 100 relay semifinal, the all-Tigerbelle US team set a world record of what time?

Martha Hudson, Lucinda Williams and Barbara Jones ran with Rudolph; they won the final in 44.5.

The Rome track events took place on what kind of surface at the Stadio Olimpico?

The relay final was run on September 7 with the temperature heading toward 40 C.

The Italians gave Rudolph which nickname after Rome?

It means the Black Gazelle; the French preferred the Black Pearl and, oddly, La Chattanooga Choo-Choo.

The French nicknamed Rudolph La Perle Noire and, after a famous song, La what?

The English-speaking press settled for The Tornado, the fastest woman on earth.

Rudolph became a global star partly because 1960 was the first Olympics with what?

The same Games launched Cassius Clay, Oscar Robertson and Rafer Johnson into the spotlight.

Rudolph refused to attend her own hometown homecoming celebration unless what changed?

The parade and banquet on October 4, 1960, became the first integrated event in the city's history.

Rudolph became the first woman invited to compete at which famous indoor track meet?

Her stardom gave a huge boost to the indoor circuit in the months after Rome.

Which government body made the 1961 ten-minute documentary Wilma Rudolph: Olympic Champion?

She also appeared on To Tell the Truth and The Ed Sullivan Show, cementing her fame.

At what age did Wilma Rudolph retire from competition, still holding three world records?

Her last races were wins at the 1962 US-Soviet meet at Stanford; she wanted to leave the sport at her best.

Rudolph explained skipping the 1964 Tokyo Olympics by comparing herself to which athlete's choice in 1936?

She said that winning two golds in Tokyo would leave something lacking, so she would stick with the glory she had.

What was Rudolph's world-record time for the 100 metres, set on July 19, 1961?

She also set the women's indoor record of 6.9 seconds for the 60-yard dash.

In 1963 Rudolph made a month-long goodwill trip for the State Department to which region?

She represented the US at the Friendship Games in Dakar and visited Ghana, Guinea, Mali and Upper Volta.

In May 1963 Rudolph joined a protest in her hometown to desegregate what?

Within a short time the mayor announced that all the city's public facilities would be integrated.

What degree did Rudolph earn from Tennessee State in 1963?

A work-study scholarship required her to work two hours a day on campus to pay for it.

After retiring, Wilma Rudolph taught which grade at Cobb Elementary, her childhood school?

She also coached track at Burt High School, her old school.

Which boxing legend did Rudolph date in the early 1960s?

The two had both become stars at the Rome Games, when he was still Cassius Clay.

The 1977 TV film Wilma, based on her autobiography, gave an early role to which future star?

Shirley Jo Finney played Rudolph, Cicely Tyson co-starred and Bud Greenspan produced.

In 1981 Rudolph founded a foundation to train youth athletes, based in which city?

She later hosted a local TV show there and lit the cauldron for the 1987 Pan American Games at the Motor Speedway.

Rudolph worked as a TV sports commentator for ABC at which Olympics?

She was also a publicist for Universal Studios and, in 1992, a vice president at Nashville's Baptist Hospital.

Rudolph died in 1994 at just 54 from which illness?

She was diagnosed in July 1994, shortly after her mother's death, and died in Brentwood near Nashville that November.

Rudolph won the 1960 James E. Sullivan Award, given annually to whom?

She was also UPI Athlete of the Year in 1960 and AP Woman Athlete of the Year in 1960 and 1961.

The Women's Sports Foundation gave its first Wilma Rudolph Courage Award in 1996 to which athlete?

The foundation had already named Rudolph one of the five greatest American women athletes in 1984.

A former American high school in which European city was renamed the Wilma Rudolph Oberschule in 2000?

The building had been Berlin American High School until US troops withdrew in 1994.

The 2004 US postage stamp honouring Rudolph had what face value?

It was the fifth stamp in the Distinguished Americans series.

Where did Sports Illustrated rank Rudolph among Tennessee's greatest 20th-century athletes?

ESPN placed her 41st among the century's greatest athletes overall.

The 1956 Olympic relay gold went to Australia, anchored by which double sprint champion of those Games?

The Australians ran 44.5 seconds; Britain took silver ahead of the American Tigerbelles.

How much did Wilma Rudolph weigh when she was born prematurely in June 1940?

She survived pneumonia and scarlet fever as a small child before contracting polio at five.

What was the occupation of Rudolph's father, Ed?

Her mother Blanche worked as a maid in Clarksville homes, and the family could not afford much medical care.

In the 1956 Melbourne relay, Rudolph's bronze-medal US team matched the world record with what time?

All four runners were Tennessee State Tigerbelles; Australia won gold in 44.5 with Betty Cuthbert anchoring.

At the 1959 Pan American Games in Chicago, Rudolph won silver in the 100 metres and gold in what?

She had enrolled at Tennessee State in 1958, with Ed Temple continuing as her coach.

Which Tennessee governor planned the homecoming parade that Rudolph insisted be integrated?

Thousands lined the streets of Clarksville and some 1,100 attended the banquet, the town's first integrated event.

Rudolph later joined which Indiana university as director of its women's track programme?

She also advised the university's president on minority affairs, and in 1992 became a vice president at Nashville's Baptist Hospital.

Where did ESPN rank Rudolph among the greatest athletes of the 20th century?

The Women's Sports Foundation had earlier named her one of the five greatest women athletes in the United States.