Tag Archives: athlete

Racing Through the Olympics With Another Contest

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The 2012 Olympic Games in London may be nearly over, but that doesn’t mean our love for all the sports is ending, too. The athletics competitions were especially nail-biting, and got us thinking about a truly amazing woman who appeared on a U.S. postage stamp in 2004.

Wilma Rudolph (1940–1994) overcame a childhood plagued by serious illness to become one of the nation’s greatest athletes. Her left leg was crippled by polio at an early age, but she was determined to walk without a brace. “I think I started acquiring a competitive spirit right then and there,” she wrote in her 1977 autobiography, “a spirit that would make me successful in sports later on.” By the time she was 12 the brace had been sent back to the hospital, and soon she was the star of her high school track and basketball teams. Within four years she had developed into a world-class sprinter.

To test your Olympic knowledge, we have a Wilma Rudolph-themed contest for you! Four lucky winners will receive an official USPS ceremony program from the Wilma Rudolph First Day of Issue ceremony held on July 14, 2004. You must answer both questions correctly:

1. When did Rudolph receive her first Olympic medal, and for which event?

2. During the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, Rudolph became the first woman to win three of which kind of medal, and for which events did she receive them?

Submit your answers to uspsstamps [at] gmail [dot] com, and remember spelling counts! The winners will be selected at random and notified by email. Deadline for entries is 5 p.m. EDT tomorrow, Saturday, August 11. Good luck!

The Fastest Man Alive: Jesse Owens’s Racing Legacy

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On August 9, 1936, track star Jesse Owens won his fourth gold medal at the Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany. Leading off the U.S. 4 x 100-meter relay team, which would set a new world record, Owens launched himself into history as one of the greatest Olympic heroes of all time.

In 1935, Owens prefaced his Olympic stardom when, on May 25, he set five world records and tied another in one afternoon as a member of Ohio State University’s track and field team. The “Buckeye Bullet” solidified his position as the fastest man alive after also winning the gold in the 100-meter dash, 200-meter dash, and long jump during the 1936 Games.

Despite his incredible achievements, Owens’s athletic career was surprisingly short. With the 1940 and 1944 Olympic Games canceled because of World War II, Owens’s focus shifted from running to raising a family. But his legacy as the Buckeye Bullet lived on for years.

In 1998, Owens appeared on a U.S. postage stamp as part of the Celebrate the Century series on the 1930s pane. He’s depicted in his Ohio State uniform clearing a hurdle.

Jesse Owens TM Estate of Jesse Owens c/o CMG Worldwide, Indpl, IN.

Unfazed by Illness & Injury, Pioneering Athlete Wilma Rudolph Set New Records

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Wilma Rudolph (1940–1994) overcame a childhood plagued by serious illness to become one of the nation’s greatest athletes. Her left leg had been crippled by polio at an early age, but she was determined to walk without a brace. “I think I started acquiring a competitive spirit right then and there,” she wrote in her 1977 autobiography, “a spirit that would make me successful in sports later on.” By the time she was 12 the brace had been sent back to the hospital, and soon she was the star of her high school track and basketball teams. Within four years she had developed into a world-class sprinter.

At the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Australia, 16-year-old Rudolph helped her team win a bronze medal in the 400-meter team relay. Four years later in Rome, after setting a world record at the trials in Texas, she became the first American woman to win three gold medals in track-and-field during a single Olympic Games. Though running on a sprained ankle, she placed first in the 100- and 200-meter dashes and anchored her team to victory in the 400-meter relay.

Rudolph retired from running in 1962 at the height of her success, but she continued to inspire African-American and female athletes, as well as the physically disabled. She worked as a teacher and a coach, and in the early 1980s she established the Wilma Rudolph Foundation, a nonprofit group focused on the development of young athletes. Respected for her perseverance and grace, she was twice named Associated Press Woman Athlete of the Year (1960, 1961), inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 1983, and honored with the National Sports Award in 1993.