Wilma Rudolph Childhood
Wednesday, May 7th, 2008A champion sprinter in the 1960 Summer Olympics in Italy, American Wilma Rudolph proved her mettle several times over in the course of the games and won out despite running on a sprained ankle. But what was her childhood like?
Rudolph was born in 1940 in St. Bethlehem, Clarkesville, Tennessee, the twentieth of what would be a twenty-two child strong family. Though Rudolph originally had polio and was forced to wear a cast on her legs, she eventually shed the handicap and went on to become a star on her high school basketball team. From there she was recruited – thanks to her raw talent – to an Olympic-caliber.
At the ripe age of 16 she not only joined the U.S. Olympic track team, she won the bronze medal in the four by 100-meter relay race. And her skills would only improve from there, to the point that she was winning gold medals in no time.