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