The Failure Pledge

Athletics

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Wilma Rudolph

Wilma Rudolph in 1960.
15 September 1960, days after taking three golds in Rome.Henk Lindeboom / Anefo, Nationaal Archief. CC BY-SA 3.0 NL, via Wikimedia Commons.

What failed

Her first serious competition was a whitewash. At her first Olympics, aged sixteen, she went out in the opening round of the 200m, though she ran the third leg for the relay team that took bronze. Then, in her last year of school, she became pregnant, at a time when a baby routinely ended a young woman's athletic career.

What happened next

She enrolled at Tennessee State weeks after her daughter was born, took silver in the 100m and gold in the relay at the 1959 Pan American Games, set a world record at the 1960 trials, and in Rome won the 100m, the 200m and the relay.

The point

Her failure stretch was short but its ingredients were the kind usually treated as terminal. She did not overcome them so much as keep entering races while carrying them.

The sequence

4 documented failures, shown with the successes in between. Every entry carries its own source — the wins are part of the record, and leaving them out is how these stories get distorted.

  1. 1954-1955

    Loses at her first major meet, at Tuskegee.

    failureWilma Rudolph (Wikipedia)

  2. 1956

    Eliminated in the first round of the 200m at Melbourne, aged sixteen.

    failureWilma Rudolph (Olympedia)

  3. 1956

    Wins a bronze medal in the 4 × 100m relay in Melbourne.

    successWilma Rudolph (Olympedia)

  4. 1958

    Pregnant in her final year of school.

    failureWilma Rudolph (Wikipedia)

  5. 1959

    Beaten into silver in the 100m at the Pan American Games.

    failureWilma Rudolph (Wikipedia)

  6. 1959

    Wins gold in the 4 × 100m relay at the same Pan American Games.

    successWilma Rudolph (Olympedia)

  7. 1960

    Sets a world record at the Olympic trials that stands for eight years.

    successWilma Rudolph (Wikipedia)

  8. 1960

    Three golds in Rome — the first American woman to do it at one Games.

    successWilma Rudolph (Wikipedia)

Sources

  • Wilma Rudolph (Olympedia)
    although eliminated in the preliminaries of the 200 m, won a bronze medal in the relay
  • Wilma Rudolph (Wikipedia)
    became the first American woman to win three gold medals in a single Olympiad
  • Wilma Rudolph (Wikipedia)
    Rudolph was defeated in a preliminary heat of the 200-meter race at the Melbourne Olympic Games but ran the third leg of the 4 × 100 m relay.
  • Wilma Rudolph (Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives)
    That year the fourteen-year-old Rudolph accompanied her high school track team to a meet at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, and, although she did not win any of her events, she was emboldened by the spectacle of women competing.

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