Wilma Rudolph, an Olympic Wonder

When Wilma Rudolph's mother was told by the doctors at the hospital that her daughter would never be able to walk again, she didn't believe it. It was this disbelief that enabled her child to walk years later. It was this same disbelief that allowed America to enthrone the first woman in history to win 3 Olympic Gold medals in a row.

As a baby, Wilma was born 4.5 pounds and 2 months premature on June 23, 1940 in St Bethlehem, Tennessee. But unlike most premature babies, she recuperated at home since her family could not afford the hospitalization fees. Probably due to her weak constitution and the insufficient medical care, Wilma suffered from a series of childhood diseases such as mumps, chickenpox, scarlet fever and then double pneumonia and remained pretty much bedridden. It was when her left leg started to be deformed that her mother finally took her to the doctors in Nashville.

There and then, Wilma Rudolph was diagnosed to be suffering from Polio. Refusing to believe that her 20th child (out of 22 kids) would never walk again, her mother took her to the hospital for bi-weekly physiotherapy sessions religiously. Every session was a painful experience but Wilma persisted on, believing in her mother when she said she would walk again.

Unveiling the Competitive Streak in Her

By the time she was 6, Wilma Rudolph was given metal braces to aid her in walking. Though the braces were supposed to help her, she hated them. To her, those were chains that imprisoned her at home and away from school. She yearned to break through them, run around the yard and go to school like any of the neighbourhood kids. She wanted to be free.

It was during this time, that she got literally frustrated at life's adversity and swore to herself that she would fight these diseases no matter what it might take. It was perhaps that same anguish that propelled her to rebel in a different way, revealing her competitive streak that would help her achieve the commendable success in her sport later on.

She started doing home physiotherapy with help from her siblings, and attending school a year later with the braces. A few years later, she awed everyone when she walked totally on her own, without any assistance into the church. She had won her first battle.

The Young Aspiring Sport Star

When she was in junior high school, she joined the basketball team. Despite her pleas to play in the games, Wilma remained a reserve for 3 full years where she watched, observed and analyzed the games. Until she was probably as good as her coach! In her 4th year with the team, she finally made an appeal to be in the starting lineup and when her wish was finally granted, she dazzled everyone by leading the team to an undefeated season and the state championships. Though they lost the championship title in the end, Wilma Rudolph earned the attention of the women's track coach, Ed Template at Tennessee State University and was invited to join the "Tigerbelles", a premier women's track & fields team in the region. At that time, she was only a high school student!

Joining the "Tigerbelles" gave her a different perspective. Running was no longer a gift that she took for granted like she used to when she won the tracks in school meets easily, as she lost every race in her first official track meet with the team. Her coach also made sure she worked hard. There was once when she was late for her training by half an hour and she had to run thirty laps as a punishment. One lap for every minute that she was late for. She also realized that she was being surpassed by athletes better trained than her. That kind of stimulated her competitive nature and sprung her into action, working with her coach closely to pick up breathing techniques and racing strategy, pace her starts which was her weakest area, and build up stamina and physical strength. At the same time, her mindset had also changed. No longer viewing her track seniors as heroes, she allowed herself to beat their timings.

Her efforts paid off as she turned out to be so good that the Tigerbelles invited her to join them in the 1956 heats for the national Olympics team. Not only did she make it into the team, she did well enough in the Melbourne Olympics to win a bronze in the 100-metres relay. At that time, she was only 16! When most of the girls her age were in high school mugging books and attending proms, she was already running for the Olympics! Although she did not win any of her own personal races, she vowed to be back in 1960, but not before being rewarded with a full scholarship by the Tennessee State to officially join the Tigerbelles as a result of her next 4 years' training efforts.

Shining Through Rome 1960

She made it to the Rome Olympics to compete in 3 separate events. Although she suffered from a sprained ankle then, she did not let it affect her performance and shocked the world by winning in an amazing fashion, breaking the World record (even though it was disputed later due to a claim of the strong tailwind) and the Olympic record in both the 100-metre & 200-metre races respectively. Even during their first heats of their 400-metres relay, Wilma Rudolph and her teammates had already broken the World record. A win was imminent for them in the finals, if not for a bad baton pass resulting in Germany and Russia taking the lead. However, her strong will to win propelled her to catch up and still win the race at only 0.3 seconds ahead of the second placed runner.

Wilma Rudolph's extraordinary achievements in Rome 1960 made her a darling of the European press who gave her the nickname "The Black Gazelle" and "The Black Pearl". Undisputedly, she also became the first woman in American history to win 3 gold medals in the Olympics and was crowned "the Fastest Woman in the World". Despite those, Wilma regarded her greatest tribute to be her homecoming parade in Tennesse. At that time, she proposed for the segregation laws for her homecoming events to be abolished and those were some of the first integrated events that the town has ever seen.

After that, Wilma Rudolph continued to be active in her sport mainly as a coach in high school track, sports commentator and mentor to famous African-American female athletes such as Jackie Joyner Kersee and Florence Griffith Joyner who became the next woman to win 3 gold medals. Both of them were remarkable women who were pretty much engaged in Wilma's spirit, even when she died of brain cancer at 54 on Nov 12, 1994.

What could we Learn From Wilma Rudolph?

Wilma Rudolph is a great reminder to us that we can overcome life's adversity with determination and sheer will power.