Today we recognized this American athlete, considered in 1960 as the fastest woman in the world as one of BLACK AMERICAN TRUTH. Wilma Glodean Rudolph (June 23, 1940 – November 12, 1994) Rudolph was an American athlete of African heritage. Rudolph was considered the fastest woman in the world in the 1960s and competed in two Olympic Games, in 1956 and in 1960. In the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome Rudolph became the first American woman to win three gold medals in track and field during a single Olympic Games. Rudolph contracted infantile paralysis (caused by the polio virus) at age four. She recovered, but wore a brace on her left leg and foot (which had become twisted as a result) until she was nine. She was voted into the National Black Sports and Entertainment Hall of Fame in 1973 and the National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1974. She was inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 1983, honored with the National Sports Award in 1993, and inducted into the National Womens Hall of Fame in 1994. On November 12, 1994, at age 54, she died of cancer in her home in Nashville. A black marble marker was placed on her grave in Clarksvilles Foster Memorial Garden Cemetery by the Wilma Rudolph Memorial Commission on November 21, 1995. In 1997, Governor Don Sundquist proclaimed that June 23 be known as Wilma Rudolph Day in Tennessee.
Posted on: Sat, 22 Mar 2014 14:18:21 +0000
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