Wilma Rudolph

Because of Wilma Rudolph the idea of overcoming anything does not seem so far-fetched. Wilma Rudolph may have been an Olympic runner but one thing she was not able to run from was her problems. Being born into an African American family in the 1940’s was only the start to a life filled with hardships. Her family dealt with segregation that not only affected the way they were treated but also the type of medical attention they received. When Wilma was born prematurely, weighing only 4.5 pounds on June 23rd, 1940 she was not able to receive the proper medical attention she needed. She was turned away from the local hospital simply because the color of her skin. Although there was a local black doctor that would help take care of Wilma, her mother Blanche who was a maid and father Ed who was a railway porter, did not have enough money to pay the doctor. Wilma’s parents knew their daughter was extremely sick but with a family of twenty-two children it was hard for them to pay for anything. Wilma’s mother and family gave their best efforts to nurse her to health by themselves. Her life continued with one sickness after another. Wilma was never able to receive the proper medicine she needed to be healthy and it seemed she was always sick. Many of the sicknesses she overcame were not just the “common cold,” Wilma experienced whooping cough, measles, mumps and chicken pox. When Wilma was only four she contracted Poliomyelitis. This disease is also known as Polio. The polio not only weakened her body overall but she became more susceptible to illness. Not only was she fighting against the infantile paralysis virus but she had to overcome scarlet fever and double pneumonia. Soon, the polio spread down to Wilma’s left leg and foot, leaving...

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...her four children, Wilma was diagnosed with cancer of the larynx and a brain tumor at the age of 54. She was transported into many different hospitals. This was one illness Wilma was not able to overcome. She died at her home in 1994 in Brentwood, Tennessee. Her extraordinary calm and grace are what people remember most about Wilma Rudolph. As Bill Mulliken, a 1960 Olympics teammate put it: “She was beautiful, she was nice, and she was the best” (“Wilma Rudolph”). Wilma was not only remembered as the fastest woman in the world but mostly because of her way of bringing people together. “Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit,” Wilma Rudolph once said. “We are all the same in this notion. The potential for greatness lives within each of us” (Sholander). Wilma Rudolph was a true inspiration and she proved that anything is possible.