Sheryl Shade: Hi, Aimee. Aimee Mullins: Hi.
SS: Aimee and I we’d just talk a little bit, and I wanted to tell all of you what makes her a athlete.
AM: Well, for those of you who have seen picture in the little bio — it might have given it — I’m a 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 you 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. I a full academic scholarship out of high school. They pick three students of the nation every year to get involved in international affairs, and so I won a full to Georgetown and I’ve been there for four years. it.
SS: When Aimee got there, she decided that she’s, of, curious about track and field, so she decided to call and start asking about it. So, why don’t you tell story?
AM: Yeah. Well, I guess I’ve always been in sports. I played softball for five years growing up. I skied competitively throughout school, and I got a little restless in college because I wasn’t doing anything about a 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 I’d ever known. In fact, I’d never even met another until I was 17. And I heard that they do track meets with all disabled runners, and I figured, “Oh, I don’t know about this, 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 at this race. I’d never done it before. I out on a gravel track a couple of weeks before this to see how far I could run, and about 50 meters was enough for me, panting and heaving. I had these legs that were made of a wood and compound, attached with Velcro straps — big, thick, five-ply wool socks — you know, not the most comfortable things, but all I’d known.
And I’m up there in Boston against people wearing made of all things — carbon graphite and, you know, shock absorbers them and all sorts of things — and they’re all looking me like, OK, we know who’s not going to this 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 to the high jump, hop on one leg to high jump and clear it at six feet, two inches … O’Brien jumped 5’11” in ’96 in Atlanta, I mean, if it just you a comparison of — these are truly accomplished athletes, without qualifying that word “athlete.” And so decided to give this a shot: heart pounding, I ran first race and I beat the national record-holder by three hundredths of a second, and became the national record-holder on my first try out.
And, you know, said, “Aimee, you know, you’ve got speed — you’ve got natural — but you don’t have any skill or finesse going down that track. were all over the place. We all saw how hard you working.” And so I decided to call the track coach Georgetown. And I thank god I didn’t know just how huge 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 all these athletes he’s coached. He’s just a rather figure. And I called him up and said, “Listen, I ran one race and won …”
(Laughter)
“I want to see if I can, you know — I need to just if I can sit in on some of your practices, what drills you do and whatever.” That’s all I — just 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 the man, walked in office, and saw these posters and magazine covers of people he has coached. And got to talking, and it turned out to be a great partnership because he’d never coached a athlete, so 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 week of his lunch break, his free time, and I would come up to the track train with him. So that’s how I met Frank. That was of ’95. But then, by the time that winter was rolling around, said, “You know, you’re good enough. You can run our women’s track team here.” And I said, “No, come on.” he said, “No, no, really. You can. You can run with our women’s team.” In the spring of 1996, with my goal making the U.S. Paralympic team that May coming up full speed, I joined women’s track team. And no disabled person had ever done that — run at collegiate level. So I don’t know, it started to become an interesting mix.
SS: Well, on your way the Olympics, a couple of memorable events happened at Georgetown. Why don’t you just tell them? AM: Yes, well, know, I’d won everything as far as the disabled meets — everything I competed — and, you know, training in Georgetown and knowing that was going to have to get used to seeing backs of all these women’s shirts — you know, I’m running against the next Flo-Jo — and they’re all at me like, “Hmm, what’s, you know, what’s going on here?” And putting my Georgetown uniform and going out there and knowing that, you know, in order to better — and I’m already the best in the — you know, you have to train with people who are inherently better than you.
And I went there and made it to the Big East, which was sort of the championship race at the end the season. It was really, really hot. And it’s the first — had just gotten these new sprinting legs that you 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 a lubricant and I’d be, kind of, pistoning in the socket. And at 85 meters of my 100 meters sprint, in all glory, I came out of my leg. Like, I came out of it, in front of, like, 5,000 people. And I, I mean, was just — because I was signed up for the 200, you know, went off in a half hour.
(Laughter)
I went my coach: “Please, don’t make me do this.” I can’t do this in front all those people. My legs will come off. And it came off at 85 there’s no way I’m going 200 meters. And he sat there like this. My pleas fell on deaf ears, thank god. you know, the man is from Brooklyn; he’s a big man. He says, “Aimee, so if your leg falls off? You pick it up, you put damn thing back on, and finish the goddamn race!”
(Laughter) (Applause) I did. So, he kept me in line. He me on the right track.
SS: So, then Aimee makes it to the 1996 Paralympics, and she’s excited. Her family’s coming down — it’s a big deal. It’s two years that you’ve been running?
AM: No, a year.
SS: A year. And don’t you tell them what happened right before you run your race?
AM: Okay, well, Atlanta. The Paralympics, just a little bit of clarification, are the Olympics for people with disabilities — amputees, persons with cerebral palsy, and wheelchair athletes — as opposed to Special Olympics, which deals with people with mental disabilities. So, we are, a week after the Olympics and down Atlanta, and I’m just blown away by the fact just a year ago, I got out on a gravel track couldn’t run 50 meters. And so, here I am — never lost. I new records at the U.S. Nationals — the Olympic trials — that May, and was that I was coming home with the gold. I was also only, what they call “bilateral BK” — below the knee. I was only woman who would be doing the long jump. I had done the long jump, and a guy who was two legs came up to me and says, “How do you that? You know, we’re supposed to have a planar foot, we can’t get 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 the long jump — signed up? No, I made it for long jump and the 100-meter. And I’m sure of it, you know? I made the page of my hometown paper that I delivered for years, you know? It was, like, this is my time shine. And we’re at the 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 was the first person the world on these legs. I 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 competition? It’s my first international meet. I tried to get it out of anybody could, you know, “Who am I running against here?” “Oh, Aimee, we’ll have to get back to you that one.” I wanted to find out times. “Don’t worry, you’re doing great.” This is 20 minutes before my in the Olympic stadium, and they post the heat sheets. I go over and look. And my fastest time, was the world record, was 15.77. Then I’m looking: the next lane, lane two, 12.8. Lane three is 12.5. Lane four is 12.2. I said, “What’s on?” And they shove us all into the shuttle bus, all the women there are missing a hand.
(Laughter)
So, I’m just, — they’re all looking at me like ‘which one these is not like the other,’ you know? I’m sitting there, like, “Oh, god. Oh, my 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, I 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 la crème, and is 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 a and drove down here from Pennsylvania.” And, you know, I the only female U.S. sprinter. So they call us out and, you know — “Ladies, you one 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 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 card to play here; if I’m not going to beat girls, I’m going to mess their heads a little, you know?
(Laughter)
I mean, it definitely the “Rocky IV” sensation of me versus Germany, everyone else — Estonia and Poland — was in heat. And the gun went off, and all I was finishing last and fighting back tears of frustration and incredible — incredible — this of just being overwhelmed. And I had to think, “Why I do this?” If I had won everything — but was like, what was the point? All this training — I had my life. I became a collegiate athlete, you know. I became Olympic athlete. And it made me really think about the achievement was getting there. I mean, the fact that set my sights, just a year and three months before, on becoming Olympic athlete and saying, “Here’s my life going in this — and I want to take it here for 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 their expertise, and their patience, to deal with me? And was this collective glory — that there was, you know, 50 people behind me that had joined in this experience of going to Atlanta. So, I apply this sort of philosophy now to everything I do: sitting and realizing the progression, how far you’ve come at this day to this goal, you know. It’s to focus on a goal, I think, but also recognize progression on the way there and how you’ve grown as person. That’s the achievement, I think. That’s the real achievement.
SS: don’t you show them your legs?
AM: Oh, sure. SS: You know, show us more one set of legs.
AM: Well, these are my pretty legs.
(Laughter)
No, are my cosmetic legs, actually, and they’re absolutely beautiful. You’ve to come up 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 be able to just go into a 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 for Georgetown in the ’80s, comes back every summer. And I had incessant fun making fun of in the training room because he’d come in with foot injuries. I’m like, “Get off! Don’t worry about it, you know. You can be feet tall. Just take them off.”
(Laughter)
He didn’t find it as humorous I did, anyway. OK, now, these are my sprinting legs, made carbon graphite, like I said, and I’ve got to make sure I’ve the right socket. No, I’ve got so many legs in here. These are — do you want hold that actually? That’s another leg I have for, like, tennis and softball. It has a shock absorber in so it, like, “Shhhh,” makes this neat sound when you around on it. All right. And then this is the 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 stand on these legs. She to be moving, so …
AM: Yeah, I definitely to be moving, and balance is a little bit an art in them. But 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 supposed to simulate actual form of a sprinter when they run. If you watch a sprinter, the ball of their foot is the only thing that ever hits the track. when I stand in these legs, my hamstring and glutes are contracted, as they would be had I feet and were standing on the ball of my feet.
(Audience: Who made them?)
AM: It’s company in San Diego called Flex-Foot. And I was a guinea pig, as I hope continue to be in every new form of prosthetic limbs that come out. But actually these, like said, are still the actual prototype. I need to get new ones because the last meet I was at, they everywhere. You know, it’s like a big — it’s come full circle.
Moderator: Aimee and the of them will be at TEDMED 2, and we’ll about the design of them.
AM: Yes, we’ll do that.
SS: Yes, there you go.
AM: So, these are the legs, and I can put my other…
SS: Can you about who designed your other legs?
AM: Yes. These I got in a place called Bournemouth, England, about hours south of London, and I’m the only person in United States with these, which is a crime because they are beautiful. And I don’t even mean, like, because of the toes and everything. For me, while I’m such serious athlete on the track, I want to be feminine off the track, and I it’s so important not to be limited in any capacity, it’s, you know, your mobility or even fashion. I mean, love the fact that I can go in anywhere pick out what I want — the shoes I want, skirts I want — and I’m hoping to try bring these over here and make them accessible to lot of people. They’re also silicon. This is a really basic, basic 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, I mean, it’s really — let me take off so you can see it. I don’t know how good you can see it, but, like, really is. There’re veins on the feet, and then my is pink, and my Achilles’ tendon — that moves little bit. And it’s really an amazing store. I them a year and two weeks ago. And this just a silicon piece of skin. I mean, what happened was, 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 of 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 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 and she rushed around and she said, “I have to buy some shoes!” We’re an hour before the ESPYs, and she thought she’d gotten a two-inch heel she’d actually bought a three-inch heel.
AM: And this poses a problem for me, it means I’m walking like that all night long.
SS: For 45 minutes. Luckily, the hotel terrific. They got someone to come in and saw off the shoes.
(Laughter)
AM: said to the receptionist — I mean, I am just harried, Sheryl’s at my side — I said, “Look, do you have here who could help me? Because I have this problem … ” You know, first 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 to touch that one. They just did it. No, these are great. I’m actually going back in a couple of weeks to get some improvements. I want to legs like these made for flat feet so I can sneakers, because I can’t with these ones. So… Moderator: That’s it.
SS: That’s Mullins.
(Applause)