Sheryl Shade: Hi, Aimee. Aimee Mullins: Hi.
SS: Aimee and I thought we’d talk a little bit, and I wanted her to all of you what makes her a distinctive athlete.
AM: Well, for those of you who have seen the in the little bio — it might have given it away — I’m a double amputee, and was born without fibulas in both legs. I was amputated at age one, and I’ve running like hell ever since, all over the place.
SS: Well, why don’t you tell them how you got Georgetown — why don’t we start there? Why don’t we there?
AM: I’m a senior in Georgetown in the Foreign Service program. won a full academic scholarship out of high school. They pick three students out of the nation every to get involved in international affairs, and so I won a full ride to and I’ve been there for four years. Love it.
SS: When Aimee there, she decided that she’s, kind of, curious about and field, so she decided to call someone and start about it. So, why don’t you tell that story?
AM: Yeah. Well, guess I’ve always been involved in sports. I played softball five years growing up. I skied competitively throughout high school, and I got a little restless college because I wasn’t doing anything for about a year two sports-wise. And I’d never competed on a disabled level, you know — I’d always competed other able-bodied athletes. That’s all I’d ever known. In fact, I’d never met another amputee until I was 17. And I heard that do these track meets with all disabled runners, and figured, “Oh, I don’t know about this, but before judge it, let me go see what it’s all about.” So, I booked myself a flight to Boston ’95, 19 years old and definitely the dark horse candidate at this race. I’d done it before. I went out on a gravel track a couple of weeks before this meet to how far I could run, and about 50 meters was enough me, panting and heaving. And I had these legs that made of a wood and plastic compound, attached with straps — big, thick, five-ply wool socks on — you know, not the comfortable things, but all I’d ever known.
And I’m up there in Boston against people wearing legs made all things — carbon graphite and, you know, shock absorbers them and all sorts of things — and they’re all looking at me like, OK, we who’s not going to win this race. And, I mean, went up there expecting — I don’t know what I was — but, you know, when I saw a man was missing an entire leg go up to the jump, hop on one leg to the high jump clear it at six feet, two inches … Dan O’Brien 5’11” in ’96 in Atlanta, I mean, if it just you a comparison of — these are truly accomplished athletes, qualifying that word “athlete.” And so I decided to this a shot: heart pounding, I ran my first race and I beat the record-holder by three hundredths of a second, and became the new record-holder on my first try out.
And, you know, people said, “Aimee, you know, you’ve speed — you’ve got natural speed — but you don’t have skill or finesse going down that track. You were over the place. We all saw how hard you were working.” And so I decided to the track coach at Georgetown. And I thank god didn’t know just how huge this man is in the track and field world. He’s five Olympians, and the man’s office is lined from floor to ceiling with All certificates of all these athletes he’s coached. He’s just a rather figure. And I called him up and said, “Listen, I ran one race I won …”
(Laughter)
“I want to see if I can, you — I need to just see if I can sit in on some of your practices, see drills you do and whatever.” That’s all I wanted — two practices. “Can I just sit in and see what you do?” And said, “Well, we should meet first, before we decide anything.” You know, he’s thinking, “What am I getting into?” So, I met the man, walked in his office, and saw these posters magazine covers of people he has coached. And we got to talking, and it turned to be a great partnership because he’d never coached a disabled athlete, therefore he had no preconceived notions of what I was wasn’t capable of, and I’d never been coached before. this was like, “Here we go — let’s start this trip.”
So he started giving me four days a of his lunch break, his free time, and I would up to the track and train with him. So that’s I met Frank. That was fall of ’95. But then, by the time that was rolling around, he said, “You know, you’re good enough. You can on our women’s track team here.” And I said, “No, on.” And he said, “No, no, really. You can. can run with our women’s track team.” In the spring 1996, with my goal of making the U.S. Paralympic team May coming up full speed, I joined the women’s track team. And no disabled person had ever done — run at a collegiate level. So I don’t know, started to become an interesting mix.
SS: Well, on your to the Olympics, a couple of memorable events happened at Georgetown. don’t you just tell them? AM: Yes, well, you know, I’d everything as far as the disabled meets — everything I in — and, you know, training in Georgetown and that I was going to have to get used to seeing backs of all these women’s shirts — you know, I’m running against the Flo-Jo — and they’re all looking at me like, “Hmm, what’s, know, what’s going on here?” And putting on my Georgetown uniform going out there and knowing that, you know, in order to become — and I’m already the best in the country — know, you have to train with people who are better than you.
And I went out there and made it to the East, which was sort of the championship race at the end of the season. It really, really hot. And it’s the first — I had just gotten these new legs that you see in that bio, and I didn’t realize at time that the amount of sweating I would be doing in the — it actually acted like a lubricant and I’d be, kind of, in the socket. And at about 85 meters of 100 meters sprint, in all my glory, I came out of my leg. Like, I almost came of it, in front of, like, 5,000 people. And I, I mean, was just mortified — because I was up for the 200, you know, which went off a half hour.
(Laughter)
I went to my coach: “Please, don’t make do this.” I can’t do this in front of all people. My legs will come off. And if it came off 85 there’s no way I’m going 200 meters. And he just there like this. My pleas fell on deaf ears, god. Because you know, the man is from Brooklyn; he’s a man. He says, “Aimee, so what if your leg falls off? You it up, you put the damn thing back on, and finish goddamn race!”
(Laughter) (Applause) And I did. So, he kept me in line. kept me on the right track.
SS: So, then Aimee it to the 1996 Paralympics, and she’s all excited. Her family’s coming down — it’s a deal. It’s now two years that you’ve been running?
AM: No, year.
SS: A year. And why don’t you tell them what right before you go run your race?
AM: Okay, well, Atlanta. The Paralympics, just for a bit of clarification, are the Olympics for people with physical disabilities — amputees, persons cerebral palsy, and wheelchair athletes — as opposed to the Special Olympics, which deals with with mental disabilities. So, here we are, a week after the and down at Atlanta, and I’m just blown away by the fact that just year ago, I got out on a gravel track couldn’t run 50 meters. And so, here I am — never lost. set new records at the U.S. Nationals — the Olympic — that May, and was sure that I was coming home the gold. I was also the only, what they call “bilateral BK” — below the knee. I the only woman who would be doing the long jump. I had just done the jump, and a guy who was missing two legs came to me and says, “How do you do that? You know, we’re supposed to have a foot, so we can’t get off on the springboard.” I said, “Well, just did it. No one told me that.”
So, it’s — I’m three inches within the world record — and kept from that point, you know, so I’m signed up in the long — signed up? No, I made it for the long jump and 100-meter. And I’m sure of it, you know? I made front page of my hometown paper that I delivered six years, you know? It was, like, this is my time for shine. And we’re the trainee warm-up track, which is a few blocks from the Olympic stadium. These legs that I was on, I’ll take out right now — I was the first person the world on these legs. I was the guinea pig., I’m telling you, this was, like — talk about a attraction.
Everyone was taking pictures — “What is this running on?” And I’m always looking around, like, where is competition? It’s my first international meet. I tried to get out of anybody I could, you know, “Who am running against here?” “Oh, Aimee, we’ll have to get to you on that one.” I wanted to find out times. “Don’t worry, you’re great.” This is 20 minutes before my race in the stadium, and they post the heat sheets. And I go and look. And my fastest time, which was the record, was 15.77. Then I’m looking: the next lane, two, is 12.8. Lane three is 12.5. Lane four is 12.2. said, “What’s going on?” And they shove us all into the shuttle bus, and all women there are missing a hand.
(Laughter)
So, I’m just, like — they’re looking at me like ‘which one of these is like the other,’ you know? I’m sitting there, like, “Oh, god. Oh, my god.” You know, I’d never lost anything, like, it would be the scholarship or, you know, I’d won five golds I skied. In everything, I came in first. And — that was great. I was losing, but it was best training because this was Atlanta. Here we are, like, crème la crème, and there is no doubt about it, I’m going to lose big. And, you know, I’m just thinking, “Oh, my god, my whole got in a van and drove down here from Pennsylvania.” And, you know, was the only female U.S. sprinter. So they call us out and, you know — “Ladies, have one minute.” And I remember putting my blocks in and just feeling horrified there was just this murmur coming over the crowd, like, ones who are close enough to the starting line to see. I’m like, “I know! Look! This isn’t right.” And I’m thinking that’s my last card play here; if I’m not going to beat these girls, I’m going to mess their heads little, you know?
(Laughter)
I mean, it was definitely the “Rocky IV” sensation of me versus Germany, everyone else — Estonia and Poland — was in this heat. And the gun went off, and I remember was finishing last and fighting back tears of frustration and incredible — incredible — feeling of just being overwhelmed. And I had to think, “Why did I do this?” If I won everything — but it was like, what was the point? All training — I had transformed my life. I became collegiate athlete, you know. I became an Olympic athlete. it made me really think about how the achievement getting there. I mean, the fact that I set sights, just a year and three months before, on becoming Olympic athlete and saying, “Here’s my life going in this direction — and I want take it here for a while, and just seeing far I could push it.”
And the fact that I for help — how many people jumped on board? many people gave of their time and their expertise, their patience, to deal with me? And that was collective glory — that there was, you know, 50 behind me that had joined in this incredible experience going to Atlanta. So, I apply this sort of philosophy to everything I do: sitting back and realizing the progression, how far you’ve come at day to this goal, you know. It’s important to focus on a goal, think, but also recognize the progression on the way there how you’ve grown as a person. That’s the achievement, think. That’s the real achievement.
SS: Why don’t you them your legs?
AM: Oh, sure. SS: You know, us more than one set of legs.
AM: Well, are my pretty legs.
(Laughter)
No, these are my legs, actually, and they’re absolutely beautiful. You’ve got to come up and see them. There hair follicles on them, and I can paint my toenails. And, seriously, like, I can wear heels. Like, you guys don’t understand that’s like to be able to just go into shoe store and buy whatever you want. SS: You to pick your height? AM: I got to pick my height, exactly.
(Laughter)
Patrick Ewing, who played for in the ’80s, comes back every summer. And I had fun making fun of him in the training room he’d come in with foot injuries. I’m like, “Get it off! Don’t worry it, you know. You can be eight feet tall. take them off.”
(Laughter)
He didn’t find it as humorous as did, anyway. OK, now, these are my sprinting legs, of carbon graphite, like I said, and I’ve got make sure I’ve got the right socket. No, I’ve got so many legs in here. These are — you want to hold that actually? That’s another leg I for, like, tennis and softball. It has a shock absorber it so it, like, “Shhhh,” makes this neat sound you jump around on it. All right. And then this is silicon sheath I roll over, to keep it on. Which, when I sweat, you know, I’m pistoning of it.
SS: Are you a different height?
AM: these?
SS: In these.
AM: I don’t know. I don’t think so. may be a little taller. I actually can put both them on.
SS: She can’t really stand on these legs. She has to moving, so …
AM: Yeah, I definitely have to be moving, and balance is a little bit an art in them. But without having the silicon sock, I’m just going to try slip in it. And so, run on these, and have shocked half the world these.
(Applause)
These are supposed to simulate the actual of a sprinter when they run. If you ever watch sprinter, the ball of their foot is the only that ever hits the track. So when I stand in these legs, my hamstring and glutes are contracted, as they would be had I had feet and standing on the ball of my feet.
(Audience: Who them?)
AM: It’s a company in San Diego called Flex-Foot. And I was guinea pig, as I hope to continue to be in every new form of prosthetic limbs that out. But actually these, like I said, are still the actual prototype. I need get some new ones because the last meet I was at, they were everywhere. You know, it’s a big — it’s come full circle.
Moderator: Aimee and the designer of them will be TEDMED 2, and we’ll talk about the design of them.
AM: Yes, we’ll do that.
SS: Yes, there go.
AM: So, these are the sprint legs, and I put my other…
SS: Can you tell about who your other legs?
AM: Yes. These I got in place called Bournemouth, England, about two hours south of London, and I’m the only person in the States with these, which is a crime because they are so beautiful. And I don’t mean, like, because of the toes and everything. For me, I’m such a serious athlete on the track, I want to be feminine off the track, and think it’s so important not to be limited in any capacity, whether it’s, know, your mobility or even fashion. I mean, I love the fact that I can go in and pick out what I want — the shoes want, the skirts I want — and I’m hoping try to bring these over here and make them to a lot of people. They’re also silicon. This a really basic, basic prosthetic limb under here. It’s like Barbie foot under this.
(Laughter)
It is. It’s just stuck in this position, I have to wear a two-inch heel. And, I mean, it’s — let me take this off so you can see it. I don’t know how good can see it, but, like, it really is. There’re veins the feet, and then my heel is pink, and Achilles’ tendon — that moves a little bit. And it’s really an amazing store. I got them a year two weeks ago. And this is just a silicon of skin. I mean, what happened was, two years this man in Belgium was saying, “God, if I can go Madame Tussauds’ wax museum and see Jerry Hall replicated down the color of her eyes, looking so real as she breathed, why can’t they build a limb for someone that looks like leg, or an arm, or a hand?” I mean, they ears for burn victims. They do amazing stuff with silicon.
SS: Two weeks ago, Aimee was up for the Ashe award at the ESPYs. And she came into town and rushed around and she said, “I have to buy some new shoes!” We’re an before the ESPYs, and she thought she’d gotten a two-inch heel but she’d actually bought a three-inch heel.
AM: this poses a problem for me, because it means I’m walking like all night long.
SS: For 45 minutes. Luckily, the hotel was terrific. They got to come in and saw off the shoes.
(Laughter)
AM: I to the receptionist — I mean, I am just harried, and Sheryl’s at my side — I said, “Look, you have anybody here who could help me? Because I have this problem … ” You know, at they were just going to write me off, like, “If you don’t your shoes, sorry. It’s too late.” “No, no, no, no. I’ve got these special that need a two-inch heel. I have a three-inch heel. I need a little bit off.” didn’t even want to go there. They didn’t even want to that one. They just did it. No, these legs are great. I’m actually back in a couple of weeks to get some improvements. want to get legs like these made for flat so I can wear sneakers, because I can’t with ones. So… Moderator: That’s it.
SS: That’s Aimee Mullins.
(Applause)