Some storms start before we are old enough to name them. For Wilma Rudolph, the storm started in a sickbed in Tennessee. By the time it passed, she was standing on an Olympic podium in Rome with three gold medals and a whole world cheering her name.
A Small Girl in a Big Storm
Wilma Glodean Rudolph was born early, on June 23, 1940, in Saint Bethlehem, Tennessee. She was the 20th of 22 children in her father’s family. From the start, her body was fragile.
As a child she spent long stretches in bed. According to Britannica, she battled pneumonia, scarlet fever and polio, and her left leg was paralyzed. She had to wear a metal brace on that leg.
The National Women’s History Museum records that a doctor said she would never walk again. Her mother did not accept that. The museum quotes Wilma’s later words: “my doctor told me I would never walk again. My mother told me I would. I believed my mother.”
A Family That Would Not Quit
What happened next is a picture of love in action. Her parents and brothers and sisters took turns caring for her. They took off her brace and massaged her weak leg, again and again. Sports Illustrated reports that family members gave her these massages four times a day.
Getting medical care was its own mountain. Because of racist medical practices of that time, she could not get the treatment she needed in her hometown. So Wilma and her mother traveled to Meharry Medical College in Nashville, about 50 miles away. They made that 100-mile round trip every week for two years.
No crowds. No cameras. Just a mother and daughter doing the slow work of hope.
Little by little, the leg grew stronger. The museum notes that around age 6 she began hopping on one leg. Later she moved from the brace to special shoes, and then left those behind too. At 11, her mother found her playing basketball outside. By about age 12, Sports Illustrated reports, she was walking without a brace or orthopedic shoe.
From the Basketball Court to the Track
The girl who was not supposed to walk became a star high school basketball player. In early 1955, Tennessee State’s women’s track coach, Ed Temple, saw the 14-year-old while refereeing a game in Clarksville and invited her to his summer camp, according to the Tennessee Encyclopedia.
In 1956, at just 16, she won a bronze medal in the 4 x 100-meter relay at the Olympics in Melbourne.
“But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”
— Isaiah 40:31 (KJV)
Rome, 1960: Rising Above the Storm
Four years later, at the 1960 Olympics in Rome, Wilma Rudolph won gold in the 100 meters, the 200 meters and the 4 x 100-meter relay. Britannica notes she was the first American woman to win three track-and-field gold medals at a single Olympics. The world called her “the fastest woman in the world.”
Coach Temple was overjoyed. He later said, as quoted by the Tennessee Encyclopedia, “I was so happy I was bursting all the buttons off my shirt.”
Using Her Victory for Others
When she came home, her town planned a parade and dinner in her honor. According to the White House Historical Association, Clarksville first planned separate celebrations for white and Black residents. Wilma refused to take part unless it was one celebration for everyone. The event was integrated, which the association calls the first racially integrated event in the town’s history.
In April 1961 she met President John F. Kennedy at the White House. That same year she received the James E. Sullivan Award from the Amateur Athletic Union.
She retired from racing in 1962 and finished her degree at Tennessee State in 1963. She spent her later years teaching, coaching, speaking to young people and starting a foundation to help amateur athletes. Life after the medals was not always easy, yet she kept giving.
Wilma Rudolph died on November 12, 1994, at age 54. Thousands came to her memorial service at Tennessee State University, and Tennessee flew its flag at half-mast.
What Her Story Teaches Our Families
- Hope is often slow. Two years of weekly trips and daily massages came before any medal.
- Love carries us. Wilma did not heal alone. A mother, a father and a houseful of siblings carried her until she could run.
- Words matter. A doctor said one thing; a mother said another. Choose to speak life over the people you love.
Whatever storm your family faces today, remember that God often works through ordinary faithfulness: a long weekly trip, a kind hand, a word of belief. Through every storm, we rise together.
Who in your life believed in you when others said you couldn’t, and how can you be that person for someone else this week?
Sources: Britannica, “Wilma Rudolph” (Britannica Kids/Students, undated); National Women’s History Museum, “Wilma Rudolph” by Arlisha R. Norwood (2017); Sports Illustrated, “Black History Month: Remembering Wilma Rudolph’s Unlikely Journey to Olympic Gold” (February 6, 2020); Tennessee Encyclopedia, “Wilma Rudolph (1940-1994) and the TSU Tigerbelles” by Bobby L. Lovett (October 8, 2017); White House Historical Association, “Olympian Wilma Rudolph Visits the White House” by Colleen Shogan (June 23, 2021); King James Bible Online, “Isaiah 40:31”.
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