Sandra Ruddick

Biographical information

RolesCompeted in Olympic Games
SexFemale
Full nameSandra Marlene•Ruddick (Anderson-, -John)
Used nameSandra•Ruddick
Born3 September 1932 in Indianapolis, Indiana (USA)
Died10 October 2017 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania (USA)
Measurements176 cm / 59 kg
AffiliationsAthenaeum Turners
NOC United States

Biography

Sandra Ruddick grew up in Indianapolis and at the time of the 1956 Olympics was married with two children, quite unusual for an Olympic gymnast. She competed for the Athenaeum Turners, coached by Walter “Lefty” Lienert and was 1954 National American Turner champion. In 1956 she won the Central States AAU meet, and at the AAU Meet, which doubled as the Olympic Trials, Ruddick won the all-around, as well as the horse vault and uneven bars.

Ruddick eventually married four times, her fourth in 1976 to Alfred John. In the early 1970s, while a single mother, one of her children badly hurt an arm and to help pay for it, Ruddick worked in nightclubs all around the Mideast, in what is described in newspapers variously as a dancer, go-go-girl, or stripper, but she emphasized that her dancing was tasteful and incorporated many of her gymnastics moves. She later worked for many years with Bell Telephone. She was a member of the charter class of the Indiana Gymnastics Hall of Fame, inducted in 2012.

Results

Games Discipline (Sport) / Event NOC / Team Pos Medal As
1956 Summer Olympics Artistic Gymnastics (Gymnastics) USA Sandra Ruddick
Individual All-Around, Women (Olympic) 51
Team All-Around, Women (Olympic) United States 9
Team Portable Apparatus, Women (Olympic) United States 9
Floor Exercise, Women (Olympic) =53
Horse Vault, Women (Olympic) =46
Uneven Bars, Women (Olympic) =46
Balance Beam, Women (Olympic) 55