PERCY LEED PERCY

leed wilma rudolph running for gold THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK Percy Leed

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Leed, Percy, 1968– author. Title: Wilma Rudolph : running for Gold / Percy Leed. Description: Minneapolis : Lerner Publications, [2021] | Series: Epic sports bios (Lerner Sports) | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Audience: Ages 7–11 years | Audience: Grades 2–3 | Summary: “As a child, Wilma Rudolph suffered from polio and wore a leg brace. In 1960, she became the first US woman to win three gold medals in track and field at an Olympics” — Provided by publisher. Identifiers: LCCN 2019051163 (print) | LCCN 2019051164 (ebook) | ISBN 9781541597440 (Library Binding) | ISBN 9781728413433 (Paperback) | ISBN 9781728400129 (eBook) Subjects: LCSH: Rudolph, Wilma, 1940–1994 —Juvenile literature. | Runners (Sports) —United States — Biography —Juvenile literature. | Women runners —United States —Biography —Juvenile literature. | Women track and field athletes —United States —Biography —Juvenile literature. | Olympics —Biography —Juvenile literature. Classification: LCC GV1061.15.R83 L44 2021 (print) | LCC GV1061.15.R83 (ebook) | DDC 796.42092 [B] —dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019051163 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019051164

Manufactured in the United States of America 1-47848-48288-2/27/2020 Contents

Three Gold Medals...... 4

Facts at a Glance...... 5

Walking, Running, Winning...... 8

Team USA...... 12

Tigerbelles...... 18

New Tracks...... 22

Selected Career Statistics ...... 28

Glossary...... 29

Source Notes...... 30

Further Information...... 31

Index...... 32 Three Gold Medals

ilma Rudolph listened for the sound of the starting gun. W The crowd buzzed with excitement for the 4x100-meter relay. Rudolph’s three United States teammates took their positions and waited. Their competitors, relay teams from six other countries, waited too.

Wilma Rudolph races toward the finish line in the 4x100-meter relay.

4 Facts at a Glance

Date of birth: June 23, 1940

League: Olympic Games

Professional highlights: was the youngest member of the 1956 US Olympic team; won a bronze medal at the 1956 Olympic Games; won three gold medals at the 1960 Olympic Games

Personal highlights: grew up in Clarksville, Tennessee; suffered from polio as a child; started the Wilma Rudolph Foundation to support track-and-field teams

5 The race took place in Rome, Italy, in September 1960. Rudolph had already won two gold medals in the Olympic Games. A win in the 4x100-meter relay would give her a third. Wilma was the anchor, or final runner, of the relay. The anchor is usually the fastest runner on the team.

Before racing in the 4x100-meter relay, Rudolph won gold in the 100-meter race (pictured).

6 Rudolph poses with her three gold medals. The medals for the 1960 Olympic Games were the first designed to wear around the neck.

The starting gun fired. Rudolph waited as her teammates sped around the track one by one. As each runner finished her 100-meter leg, she handed off the baton to the next runner. When it was her turn, Rudolph reached out, but she couldn’t get a good grip on the baton. She slowed long enough for Germany’s Jutta Heine to take the lead. Rudolph sped up and caught Heine. Both runners sprinted to cross the finish line. By a split second, Rudolph came in first. She became the first American woman in history to win three gold medals at an Olympic Games.

7 Walking, Running, Winning ilma Rudolph was born in Saint Bethlehem, Tennessee, on WJune 23, 1940. She arrived eight weeks early and weighed just 4.5 pounds (2 kg). As a young girl, Wilma suffered several illnesses. The worst of them was polio.

Some people with polio needed leg braces like these to help stand and walk.

8 Polio was a serious disease that could leave a person permanently disabled. In Wilma’s case, polio weakened her left leg. She couldn’t walk or stand and spent her days inside. She couldn’t even go to school. “My doctors told me I would never walk again,” she said. “My mother told me I would. I believed my mother.” Every day, Wilma’s mother spent time massaging Wilma’s leg to strengthen it. Over time, it grew stronger. With the help of a leg brace, Wilma could go to school.

STOPPING POLIO

In 1955, a doctor named Jonas Salk developed a polio vaccine, a treatment that helps prevent the illness. Doctors gave the vaccine to children throughout the United States and many other countries. By the 21st century, polio had almost disappeared from the world.

9 LeED

as a child with polio, Wilma Rudolph spent her days indoors. Her weakened left leg stopped her from running or even walking without a brace. But by the time she was a teenager, the brace was gone, and she was one of the fastest kids in Tennessee. In 1956, Rudolph helped the United States women’s relay team win a bronze medal at the Summer Olympics. Four years later, she won three Wilma Rudolph Olympic gold medals and became an international track- and-field star. Find out how Rudolph overcame polio to

become the fastest woman in the world. Running For Gold

Babe Didrikson Zaharias: MULTISPORT SUPERSTAR Babe Ruth: SUPER SLUGGER kobe bryant: NBA CHAMPION Michael Jordan: FLYING HIGH Muhammad Ali: I AM THE GREATEST SANDY KOUFAX: LEFTY LEGEND Tiger Woods: MAJOR WINNER Wilma Rudolph: RUNNING FOR GOLD

PERCY LEED www.lernerbooks.com GRL: R

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