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