50 free Wilma Rudolph trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Wilma Rudolph was born prematurely, the twentieth of twenty-two children, wore a leg brace until she was twelve, and eight years later was the fastest woman in the world. This quiz follows the whole story: the polio, the weekly bus rides to Nashville for treatment, the high-school basketball star nicknamed Skeeter, and the day Tennessee State coach Ed Temple spotted her and invited her to train with the Tigerbelles. From there it goes to the track: the bronze relay medal at sixteen in Melbourne, the world record at the 1960 trials, the cinder track of Rome's Stadio Olimpico, the wind-aided 100 metres, the near-dropped baton in the relay, and the three gold medals that made her the first American woman to win three at a single Games. It also covers what came after: the nicknames from Italy and France, the homecoming parade she forced Clarksville to integrate, dating Muhammad Ali, retiring at 22 while still world record-holder, teaching second grade, the goodwill trip to West Africa, the foundation, the postage stamp and the Berlin school that carries her name. Easy questions suit anyone who has heard her name; the expert tier is for track and field historians. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's article on Rudolph and on her coach, and the supporting sentence is attached to each question.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01At which Olympic Games did Wilma Rudolph win her three gold medals?
Rome 1960
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.
Q 02Which childhood disease left Rudolph wearing a leg brace until she was 12?
Polio
She had also survived pneumonia and scarlet fever, and lost strength in her left leg and foot.
Q 03Rudolph was born prematurely in 1940 in Saint Bethlehem, now part of which Tennessee city?
Clarksville
She weighed 4.5 pounds at birth; her father was a railway porter and her mother a maid.
Q 04Rudolph was the 20th of how many children from her father's two marriages?
22
Her siblings later gave her massage treatments four times a day to help her weakened leg.
Q 05Rudolph and her mother took weekly bus trips for treatment at which Black medical college in Nashville?
Meharry
There was little medical care available to African Americans in Clarksville in the 1940s, and Nashville was about 50 miles away.
Q 06What nickname did Rudolph's high school coach C. C. Gray give her because she moved so fast?
Skeeter
It was short for mosquito; she scored 803 points in one season, a state record for high school girls.
Q 07In which sport did Rudolph first star at Burt High School before turning to track?
Basketball
She followed her sister Yvonne onto the court in eighth grade and became a starter.
Q 08Which Tennessee State coach spotted the teenage Rudolph and invited her to his summer track camp at 14?
Ed Temple
He coached the Tigerbelles for 44 years and led the US Olympic women's track team in 1960 and 1964.
Q 09What was the nickname of the Tennessee State women's track team Rudolph ran with?
The Tigerbelles
Forty of them went on to represent their countries at the Olympics under Temple, who won 34 national titles.
Q 10After her first summer camp, Rudolph won all nine events she entered at an AAU meet in which city?
Philadelphia
She had lost her first major race, at Alabama's Tuskegee Institute, and vowed to keep competing.
Q 11How old was Rudolph at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, as the youngest member of the US team?
16
She was a junior in high school and one of five Tigerbelles to make the team.
Q 12What medal did Rudolph win in the 4 x 100 relay at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics?
Bronze
The all-Tigerbelle team matched the world record of 44.9 seconds; Australia won with Betty Cuthbert on the anchor leg.
Q 13In which event did Wilma Rudolph set an eight-year world record at the 1960 US Olympic trials?
200 m
Her time was 22.9 seconds; she was still a sophomore at Tennessee State.
Q 14Rudolph's 11.0-second win in the Rome 100 metres was not credited as a world record. Why?
Q 21The French nicknamed Rudolph La Perle Noire and, after a famous song, La what?
Chattanooga Choo-Choo
The English-speaking press settled for The Tornado, the fastest woman on earth.
Q 22Rudolph became a global star partly because 1960 was the first Olympics with what?
Worldwide TV coverage
The same Games launched Cassius Clay, Oscar Robertson and Rafer Johnson into the spotlight.
Q 23Rudolph refused to attend her own hometown homecoming celebration unless what changed?
It was integrated
The parade and banquet on October 4, 1960, became the first integrated event in the city's history.
The wind was too strong
The tailwind of 2.75 metres per second exceeded the 2 m/s limit.
Q 15Rudolph was the first American woman to win the Olympic 100 metres since which athlete at the 1936 Games?
Helen Stephens
The gap was 24 years; Rudolph's own inspiration was Berlin star Jesse Owens.
Q 16What Olympic record time did Rudolph set in the opening heat of the 200 metres in Rome?
23.2 seconds
She won the final in a slower 24.0 seconds and was hailed as the fastest woman in history.
Q 17Which leg did Rudolph run in the Rome 4 x 100 relay final?
Anchor
She nearly dropped the baton after the pass from Lucinda Williams but overtook Germany's runner to win.
Q 18In the Rome 4 x 100 relay semifinal, the all-Tigerbelle US team set a world record of what time?
44.4 seconds
Martha Hudson, Lucinda Williams and Barbara Jones ran with Rudolph; they won the final in 44.5.
Q 19The Rome track events took place on what kind of surface at the Stadio Olimpico?
Cinder
The relay final was run on September 7 with the temperature heading toward 40 C.
Q 20The Italians gave Rudolph which nickname after Rome?
La Gazzella Nera
It means the Black Gazelle; the French preferred the Black Pearl and, oddly, La Chattanooga Choo-Choo.
Q 24Rudolph became the first woman invited to compete at which famous indoor track meet?
The Millrose Games
Her stardom gave a huge boost to the indoor circuit in the months after Rome.
Q 25Which government body made the 1961 ten-minute documentary Wilma Rudolph: Olympic Champion?
The US Information Agency
She also appeared on To Tell the Truth and The Ed Sullivan Show, cementing her fame.
Q 26At what age did Wilma Rudolph retire from competition, still holding three world records?
22
Her last races were wins at the 1962 US-Soviet meet at Stanford; she wanted to leave the sport at her best.
Q 27Rudolph explained skipping the 1964 Tokyo Olympics by comparing herself to which athlete's choice in 1936?
Jesse Owens
She said that winning two golds in Tokyo would leave something lacking, so she would stick with the glory she had.
Q 28What was Rudolph's world-record time for the 100 metres, set on July 19, 1961?
11.2 seconds
She also set the women's indoor record of 6.9 seconds for the 60-yard dash.
Q 29In 1963 Rudolph made a month-long goodwill trip for the State Department to which region?
West Africa
She represented the US at the Friendship Games in Dakar and visited Ghana, Guinea, Mali and Upper Volta.
Q 30In May 1963 Rudolph joined a protest in her hometown to desegregate what?
A restaurant
Within a short time the mayor announced that all the city's public facilities would be integrated.