The greatest Olympic athlete from every U.S. state

Tennessee: Wilma Rudolph

Sport: Track and Field

Olympics: Melbourne 1956 and Rome 1960

One of the most iconic women in sports history, Wilma Rudolph had to overcome an incredible amount to become an Olympic champion. As a youth, Rudolph was stricken with polio and she had to learn how to walk without a brace or an orthopedic style shoe. Her left leg and foot had been dramatically weakened. It was only through hard work and perseverance that she was able to regain the full function and she started to play basketball and run track in high school.

While Rudolph was still in high school, she was noticed by Tennessee State’s track coach, Ed Temple. Seeing the amount of potential that Rudolph possessed, Temple offered to help train her and that’s when Rudolph saw her career really start to take off. At the age of 16, Rudolph traveled to Australia to compete in the 1956 Olympic Games. She did not medal in her individual race but she was part of the bronze medal winning relay team. As she showed her medal to her classmates back home, she vowed to win a gold the in the 1960 Olympics and that’s exactly what she did.

Rudolph became the first American woman to win three gold medals at a single Games and was dubbed the fastest woman in the world due to her exploits. This was also the first time that the Olympics had been widely broadcast in the U.S. and it helped vault Rudolph to star status when she returned home. As a sign of things to come, she insisted that the banquet and parade her hometown threw her to be fully integrated. It was the very first fully integrated event in the history of Clarksville, Tennessee. She left her sport at her peak, following in her idol Jesse Owen’s footsteps. Her legacy is not only defined by sports but her constant fight for racial equality in the United States.

Honorable Mention: Tracy Caulkins, swimming in Los Angeles 1984