Sheryl Shade: Hi, Aimee. Aimee Mullins: Hi.
SS: and I thought we’d just talk a little bit, and wanted her to tell all of you what makes 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 double amputee, and I was born without fibulas in 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 got to Georgetown — why don’t we start there? Why don’t start there?
AM: I’m a senior in Georgetown in the Foreign Service program. won a full academic scholarship out of high school. pick three students out of the nation every year to get involved in international affairs, and I won a full ride to Georgetown and I’ve been 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 you that story?
AM: Yeah. Well, I guess I’ve always been involved sports. I played softball for five years growing up. I skied competitively throughout school, and I got a little restless in college I wasn’t doing anything for about a year or two sports-wise. And I’d never on a disabled level, you know — I’d always competed against other able-bodied athletes. That’s I’d ever known. In fact, I’d never even met another amputee until I 17. And I heard that they do these track meets with all disabled runners, I figured, “Oh, I don’t know about this, but before I judge it, let me 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 to see 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, with Velcro straps — big, thick, five-ply wool socks on — you know, the most comfortable things, but all I’d ever known.
And I’m up there in against people wearing legs made of all things — graphite and, you know, shock absorbers in them and all sorts of things — and they’re looking at 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 expecting — but, you know, when I saw a man who was missing entire leg go up to the high jump, hop on one leg to the jump and clear it at six feet, two inches … Dan O’Brien 5’11” in ’96 in Atlanta, I mean, if it just gives you a comparison — these are truly accomplished athletes, without qualifying that word “athlete.” so I decided to give this a shot: heart pounding, I my first race and 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 skill finesse going down that track. You were all over the place. We all how hard you were working.” And so I decided to call track coach at Georgetown. And I thank god I didn’t know just how huge man is in the track and field world. He’s coached five Olympians, the man’s office is lined from floor to ceiling with All America certificates of all these he’s coached. He’s just a rather intimidating figure. And I him up and said, “Listen, I ran one race I won …”
(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 you do whatever.” That’s all I wanted — just two practices. “Can I just in and see what you do?” And he said, “Well, we should meet first, before decide anything.” You 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 people he has coached. we got to talking, and it turned out to be great partnership 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 been coached before. So this was like, “Here we go — let’s start on this trip.”
So he giving me 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. was fall of ’95. But then, by the time that winter rolling around, he said, “You know, you’re good enough. You can run our women’s track team here.” And I said, “No, come on.” And said, “No, no, really. You can. You can run with our women’s track team.” In spring of 1996, with my goal of making the U.S. Paralympic team 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 you just them? AM: Yes, well, you know, I’d won everything as far as the disabled meets — everything I in — and, you know, training in Georgetown and knowing that I going to have to get used to seeing the backs all these women’s shirts — you know, I’m running against next Flo-Jo — and they’re all looking at me like, “Hmm, what’s, you know, what’s on here?” And putting on my Georgetown uniform and going out there knowing that, you know, in order to become better — and I’m already the best in country — you know, you have to train with people who are inherently than you.
And I went out there and made it to the Big East, which was sort of championship race at the end of the season. It really, really hot. And it’s the first — I just gotten these new sprinting legs that you see in bio, and I didn’t realize at that time that amount of sweating I would be doing in the sock — it actually acted like lubricant and I’d be, kind of, pistoning in the socket. at about 85 meters of my 100 meters sprint, all my glory, I came out of my leg. Like, almost came out of it, in front of, like, 5,000 people. And I, mean, was just mortified — because I was signed up 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 this in front of all those people. My legs will off. And if it came off at 85 there’s way I’m going 200 meters. And he just sat there like this. My pleas fell on ears, thank god. Because you know, the man is from Brooklyn; he’s big man. He says, “Aimee, so what if your leg falls off? You pick 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 makes it to 1996 Paralympics, and she’s all excited. Her family’s coming down — it’s 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 happened right before you go run your race?
AM: Okay, well, Atlanta. The Paralympics, just a little bit of clarification, are the Olympics for people with physical — amputees, persons with cerebral palsy, and wheelchair athletes — as opposed to the Special Olympics, which with people with mental disabilities. So, here we are, a week after the Olympics and at Atlanta, and I’m just blown away by the fact just a year ago, I got out on a gravel track and couldn’t 50 meters. And so, here I am — never lost. I new records at the U.S. Nationals — the Olympic trials — that May, and sure that I was coming home with the gold. I was also only, what they call “bilateral BK” — below the knee. I was the woman who would be doing the long jump. I had done the long jump, and a guy who was missing two legs came up to and says, “How do you do that? You know, we’re supposed to a planar foot, so we can’t get off on springboard.” I said, “Well, I just did it. No one told me that.”
So, it’s funny — I’m inches within the world record — and kept on from that point, know, so I’m signed up in the long jump — 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, you know? It was, like, is my time for shine. And we’re at the trainee warm-up track, is a few blocks away from the Olympic stadium. legs that I was on, which 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, was, like — talk about a tourist attraction.
Everyone taking pictures — “What is this girl running on?” I’m always looking around, like, where is my competition? It’s my international meet. I tried to get it out of anybody could, you know, “Who am I running against here?” “Oh, Aimee, we’ll have get back to you on that one.” I wanted find out times. “Don’t worry, you’re doing great.” This is 20 before my race in the Olympic stadium, and they post the heat sheets. And go over and look. And my fastest time, which was the world record, 15.77. Then I’m looking: the next lane, lane two, is 12.8. Lane three 12.5. Lane four is 12.2. I said, “What’s going on?” And shove us all into the shuttle bus, and all the women are missing a hand.
(Laughter)
So, I’m just, like — they’re all looking me like ‘which one of these is not like other,’ you know? I’m sitting there, like, “Oh, my god. Oh, god.” You know, I’d never lost anything, like, whether it would be the or, you know, I’d won five golds when I skied. In everything, came in first. And Georgetown — that was great. I was losing, but it was the best because this was Atlanta. Here we are, like, crème de crème, and there is no doubt about it, that I’m going to lose big. And, know, I’m just thinking, “Oh, my god, my whole family got in van and drove down here from Pennsylvania.” And, you know, I was the only female U.S. sprinter. So they us out and, you know — “Ladies, you have one minute.” And I putting my blocks in and just feeling horrified because there was just this coming over the crowd, like, the ones who are 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 play here; if I’m not going to beat these girls, I’m going to their heads a little, you know?
(Laughter)
I mean, it was definitely the “Rocky IV” sensation me versus Germany, and everyone else — Estonia and Poland — 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 this?” If I had won everything — but it like, what was the point? All this training — I transformed my life. I became a collegiate athlete, you know. I became an Olympic athlete. And it made me think about how the achievement was getting there. I mean, fact that I set my sights, just a year and months before, on becoming an Olympic athlete and saying, “Here’s my going in this direction — and I want to take it for a while, and just seeing how far I could push it.”
And the that I asked for help — how many people on board? How many people gave of their time and their expertise, and patience, to deal with me? And that was this collective — that there was, you know, 50 people behind me that had joined in incredible experience of going to Atlanta. So, I apply sort of philosophy now to everything I do: sitting 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 on the way there and how you’ve grown a 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, show more than one set of legs.
AM: Well, these are my legs.
(Laughter)
No, these are my cosmetic legs, actually, and they’re absolutely beautiful. You’ve to come up and see them. There are hair follicles on them, and can paint my toenails. And, seriously, like, I can wear heels. Like, you don’t understand what that’s like to be able to just go into a shoe store buy whatever you want. SS: You got to pick your height? AM: I to pick my height, exactly.
(Laughter)
Patrick Ewing, who played for Georgetown in ’80s, comes back every summer. And I had incessant fun making fun him in the training room because he’d come in with 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 it humorous as I did, anyway. OK, now, these are my sprinting legs, made of carbon graphite, I said, and I’ve got to make sure I’ve got the right socket. No, I’ve so many legs in here. These are — do you to hold that actually? That’s another leg I have for, like, tennis and softball. It has shock absorber in it so it, like, “Shhhh,” makes this sound when you jump around on it. All right. And then this the silicon sheath I roll over, to keep it on. Which, when sweat, you know, I’m pistoning out of it.
SS: Are you different height?
AM: In these?
SS: In these.
AM: I don’t know. don’t think so. I may be a little taller. I can put both of them on.
SS: She can’t really on these legs. She has to be moving, so …
AM: Yeah, definitely have to be 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, and have shocked half the world these.
(Applause)
These are supposed to simulate the actual form of sprinter when they run. If you ever watch a sprinter, the ball of their is the only thing that ever hits the track. So I stand in these legs, my hamstring and my are contracted, as they would 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 hope to continue to be in every new form of prosthetic that come out. But actually these, like I said, are the actual prototype. I need to get some new ones because the last meet was at, they were everywhere. You know, it’s like a — it’s come 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 put other…
SS: Can you tell about who designed your other legs?
AM: Yes. These got in a place called Bournemouth, England, about two south of London, and I’m the only person in United 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, 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 even fashion. I mean, I love the fact that can go in anywhere and pick out what I want — the shoes I want, the I want — and I’m hoping to try to these over here and make them accessible to a lot people. They’re also silicon. This is a really basic, basic prosthetic limb under here. It’s like a foot under this.
(Laughter)
It is. It’s just stuck in this position, so have to wear a two-inch heel. And, I mean, it’s really — let me take this off so can see it. I don’t know how good you can it, but, like, it really is. There’re veins on the feet, and my heel is pink, and my Achilles’ tendon — that a little bit. And it’s really an amazing store. got them a year and two weeks ago. And is just a silicon piece of skin. I mean, what was, two years ago this man in Belgium was saying, “God, if I 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 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 town and she rushed and she said, “I have to buy some 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, am just harried, and Sheryl’s at my side — I said, “Look, do you have anybody here who help me? Because I have this problem … ” You know, at first they were just to write me off, like, “If you don’t like your shoes, sorry. It’s late.” “No, no, no, no. I’ve got these special that need a two-inch heel. I have a three-inch heel. I a little bit off.” They didn’t even want to there. They didn’t even want to touch that one. They just did it. No, legs are great. I’m actually going back in a 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)