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