Wilma Rudolph Noted Track Star - First American Woman to win 3 Gold Medals in the Olympics 5th Stamp in the Distinguished American Series To Be Issued on June 1, 2004

Wilma Glodean Rudolph was born in Saint Bethlehem Tennessee on June 23, 1940. She was the first American woman runner to win three gold medals at a single Olympics.

A series of illnesses (including Polio) during her infancy left Wilma without the use of one leg and only constant exercise and care enabled her to learn to walk when she was eight. Three years later she had progressed enough to discard her specially reinforced shoe. Wilma became a star basketball player and sprinter at Clarksville High School and attended Tennessee State University from 1957 to 1961. In 1956, at the age of 16, Wilma was a member of the United States Olympic team of that won the bronze medal in the 100 meter relay race in Summer Games at Melbourne, Australia. In 1960, before the Olympic Games at Rome, she set a world record of 22.9 seconds in the 200 meter race. In the Games themselves she won gold medals in the 100 meter dash (tying the world record at 11.3 seconds), the 200 meter dash and as a member of the 100 meter relay team, which had set a world record of 44.4 seconds in a semifinal race. Her strikingly fluid style made Wilma a particular favorite with spectators and journalists. She won the Amateur Athletic Union's 1961 Sullivan Award as the year's outstanding amateur athlete.

After retiring as a runner, Wilma worked on Operation Champion to provide children and teenagers in the nation's largest ghettos with sports training from star athletes. She also founded the Wilma Rudolph Foundation in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1982 to encourage community-based track and field programs. She was named to the National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1974, the International Sports Hall of Fame in 1980, and the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 1983. Her autobiography, Wilma, was published in 1977.

Wilma Rudolph was stricken with Brain Cancer and passed away on November 12, 1984 in Brentwood, Tennessee.

Source: 
Encyclopedia Britannica