I have just been reading a little about Wilma Rudolph, and what an amazing story it is! I didn’t know anything about her until very recently, which surprised me a bit to start off with — surprised that I hadn’t heard such an inspirational story before. But I realized there are probably a couple of reasons for this oversight: one, I’m not American, so the tale behind this great lady wouldn’t have been on my radar in the same way as she would’ve been for you living on that side of the Atlantic; and two, I was only three years old when the Rome Olympics were taking place.
It’s an amazing tale though, and well worth reading even now; very inspirational.
Wilma Rudolph
Little Wilma was the 20th of 22 children. Born in 1940, she was premature and weighed only 4.5 pounds. At age four she contracted polio which left her left leg crooked and her left foot twisted inward. Wilma’s mother Blanche was told Wilma would never walk again. Blanche did not give up and began taking her daughter twice a week 50 miles away for treatment. After a year, Wilma was able to walk with a leg brace.
“Honey, you have to believe in God and never give up hope,” Blanche responded. “If you believe, God will make it happen.”
After seven years of painful therapy, she could walk without her braces. At age 12 Wilma tried out for a girls basketball team, but didn’t make it. Determined, she practiced with a girlfriend and two boys every day. The next year she made the team. When a college track coach saw her during a game, he talked her into letting him train her as a runner. By age 14 she had outrun the fastest sprinters in the U.S.
In 1956 Wilma made the U.S. Olympic team, but showed poorly. That bitter disappointment motivated her to work harder for the 1960 Olympics in Rome–and there Wilma Rudolph won three gold medals, the most a woman had ever won.
About Paul Sibley
Andrew Gosden (now 18) has been missing from his Doncaster home since 14 September 2007. The search continues.
Elizabeth Jackson on 