Wilma rudolph childhood
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Wilma Rudolph
Track Star
Born in 1940 - Died in 1994
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When Wilma Rudolph was four years old, she had a disease called polio which causes people to be crippled and unable to walk. To make matters worse, her family was poor and could not afford good medical care. She was from a large family. She was the 20th child of 22 children. Her father was a railroad porterand her mother was a maid.
Her mother decided she would do everything she could to help Wilma to walk again. The doctors had said she would not be able to walk. She took her every week on a long bus trip to a hospital to receive therapy. It didn't help, but the doctors said she needed to give Wilma a massage every day by rubbing her legs. She taught the brothers and sisters how to do it, and they also rubbed her legs four times a day.
By the time she was 8, she could walk with a leg brace. After that, she used a high-topped shoe to support her foot. She played basketball with her brothers every day.
Three years later, her mother came home to find her playing basketball by herself bare-footed. She didn't even
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Wilma Rudolph
Wilma Rudolph
PHOTO: Library of Congress
A native of Clarksville, Wilma Rudolph was one of the most celebrated female athletes of all-time.
Her story is an inspirational one. She was born prematurely, weighing only 4.5 pounds — and the doctor doubted she would survive. She developed pneumonia and polio as a child, rendering her disabled for most of her childhood. For several years, her mother, brother or sister had to message her legs four times a day, and then she had to wear a metal brace for several years. Wilma didn’t start school until she was eight. Her father was a porter and her mother was a maid. Like other poor people of that era, Wilma Rudolph’s home had an outhouse.
This statue of Wilma Rudolph is in Clarksville
When she was in the eighth grade, Wilma Rudolph’s sister made the track team at Burt High School, but Wilma didn’t. Her father told the coach that the Rudolph sisters were a “package deal” — either both girls made the team, or neither girls made the team. Wilma thus made the team, an
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This is Wilma: Read the Story of Wilma Rudolph
Wilma Rudolph was born in 1940. The 20th of 22 children, she arrived prematurely, weighing only four and a half pounds. Many people in her small town in Tennessee didn’t think such a tiny baby would live to see her first birthday, especially in a home with no electricity or running water. But Wilma surprised them all. As soon as she could walk, she was running and jumping.
Still, Wilma remained small and was often sick. By the time she was 5, she’d become ill with scarlet fever and polio. Back then, there was no vaccine for polio. Children with the disease often died. Wilma survived, but her left leg was twisted, and she couldn’t walk. She got around by hopping on her right leg. “My doctors told me I would never walk again,” she said. “My mother told me I would. I believed my mother.” Every week, Wilma and her mother or aunt traveled 100 miles round-trip to the closest hospital that treated Black people, so Wilma could receive treatment for her leg.
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