Sheryl Shade: Hi, Aimee. Mullins: Hi.
SS: Aimee and I thought we’d just a little bit, and I wanted her to tell all you what makes her a distinctive athlete.
AM: Well, for of you who have seen the picture in the little — it might have given it away — I’m a double amputee, and was born without fibulas in both legs. I was amputated at age one, and I’ve been running 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? don’t we start there?
AM: I’m a senior in Georgetown in the Service program. I won a full academic scholarship out of school. They pick three students out of the nation every year get involved in international affairs, and so I won full ride 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 someone and start 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 growing up. I skied competitively throughout high school, and I got a little in college because I wasn’t doing anything for about a or two sports-wise. And I’d never competed on a disabled level, you know — I’d competed against other able-bodied athletes. That’s all I’d ever known. fact, I’d never even met another amputee until I was 17. I heard that they do these track meets with all runners, and 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 and definitely the dark horse candidate at race. I’d never done it before. I went out on gravel track a couple of weeks before this meet see how far I could run, and about 50 meters was enough for me, panting heaving. And I had these legs that were made of a wood plastic compound, attached with Velcro straps — big, thick, five-ply wool on — you know, not the most comfortable things, but I’d ever known.
And I’m up there in Boston against people wearing legs made of all — carbon graphite and, you know, shock absorbers in them all sorts of things — and they’re all looking at me like, OK, we know who’s not to win this race. And, I mean, I went up there expecting — I don’t know what was expecting — but, you know, when I saw a man was missing an entire leg go up to the high jump, hop on leg to the high jump and clear it at feet, two inches … Dan O’Brien jumped 5’11” in ’96 in Atlanta, I mean, if just gives you a comparison of — these are truly accomplished athletes, without qualifying that word “athlete.” so I decided to give this a shot: heart pounding, I ran my race and I beat the national record-holder by three hundredths a second, and became the new national record-holder on my first out.
And, you know, people 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. were all over the place. We all saw how hard you working.” And so I decided to call the track coach at Georgetown. And thank god I didn’t know just how huge this man is in the track field world. He’s coached five Olympians, and the man’s office is lined from floor ceiling with All America certificates of all these athletes he’s coached. He’s a rather intimidating figure. And I called him up and said, “Listen, ran one race and I won …”
(Laughter)
“I 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 wanted — just two practices. “Can I sit in and see what 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 the man, walked in his office, and saw these posters magazine covers of people he has coached. And we got to talking, and turned 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. So this like, “Here we go — let’s start on this trip.”
So he started giving me 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 met Frank. That was fall of ’95. But then, by the that winter was rolling 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. can. You can run with our women’s track team.” In the of 1996, with my goal of making the U.S. Paralympic team that coming up full speed, I joined the women’s track team. And no person had ever done that — 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 just them? AM: Yes, well, you know, I’d won everything far as the disabled meets — everything I competed — and, you know, training in Georgetown and knowing that I was going have to get 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 on here?” And putting on my Georgetown uniform and going out and knowing that, you know, in order to become better — and I’m already best in the country — you know, you have to train people who are inherently better than you.
And I went there and made it to the Big East, which was sort of the championship 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 time that the amount of I would be doing in the sock — it actually like a lubricant and I’d be, kind of, pistoning in socket. And at about 85 meters of my 100 meters sprint, all my glory, I came out of my leg. Like, I came out of it, in front of, like, 5,000 people. And I, mean, was just mortified — because I was signed up for the 200, you know, went off in a half hour.
(Laughter)
I went to my coach: “Please, don’t make me this.” I can’t do this in front of all those people. My legs come off. And if it came off at 85 there’s no way I’m 200 meters. And he just sat there like this. pleas fell on deaf ears, thank god. Because you know, the man is from Brooklyn; he’s a big man. says, “Aimee, so what if your leg falls off? You pick it up, put the damn thing back on, and finish the race!”
(Laughter) (Applause) And I did. So, he kept me line. He kept me on the right track.
SS: So, then Aimee it to the 1996 Paralympics, and she’s all excited. family’s coming down — it’s a big deal. It’s now two years that you’ve running?
AM: No, a year.
SS: A year. And why don’t you them what happened right before you go run your race?
AM: Okay, well, Atlanta. Paralympics, just for a little bit of clarification, are the for people with physical disabilities — amputees, persons with cerebral palsy, and athletes — as opposed to the Special Olympics, which deals with people mental disabilities. So, here we are, a week after the and down at Atlanta, and I’m just blown away by fact that just a year ago, I got out a gravel track and couldn’t run 50 meters. And so, here am — never lost. I set new records at the U.S. Nationals — Olympic trials — that May, and was sure that I coming home 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 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 off on springboard.” I said, “Well, I just did it. No one told me that.”
So, it’s — I’m three inches within the world record — kept on from that point, you know, so I’m up in the long jump — signed up? No, I made it the long jump and the 100-meter. And I’m sure it, you know? I made the front page of my hometown paper that I for six years, you know? It was, like, this is my for shine. And we’re at the trainee warm-up track, which is a few away from the Olympic stadium. These legs that I was on, which I’ll out right now — I was the first person in the world on these legs. I was the pig., I’m telling you, this was, like — talk about a tourist attraction.
Everyone was 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 running against here?” “Oh, Aimee, we’ll have to get to you on that one.” I wanted to find times. “Don’t worry, you’re doing great.” This is 20 minutes before my race in the stadium, and they post the heat sheets. And I go over and look. And fastest time, which was the world record, was 15.77. Then I’m looking: the lane, lane two, is 12.8. Lane three is 12.5. four is 12.2. I said, “What’s going on?” And they shove us into the shuttle bus, and all the women there are missing hand.
(Laughter)
So, I’m just, like — 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, it would be the scholarship or, you know, I’d won five golds I skied. In everything, I came in first. And Georgetown — was great. I was losing, but it was the best training because was Atlanta. Here we are, like, crème de la crème, there is no doubt about it, that I’m going lose big. And, you know, I’m just thinking, “Oh, god, my whole family got in a van and down here from Pennsylvania.” And, you know, I was 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 was this murmur coming over 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.” And I’m thinking that’s my card to play here; if I’m not going to beat these girls, I’m going to mess their a little, you know?
(Laughter)
I mean, it was definitely the “Rocky IV” sensation of me Germany, and everyone else — Estonia and Poland — was in this heat. And the gun off, and all I remember was finishing last and fighting back of frustration and incredible — incredible — this feeling just being overwhelmed. And I had to think, “Why did do this?” If I had won everything — but was like, what was the point? All this training — had transformed my life. I became a collegiate athlete, you know. I an Olympic athlete. And it made me really think how the achievement was getting there. I mean, the fact that I set my sights, just a year three months before, on becoming an Olympic athlete and saying, “Here’s my life going in direction — and I want to take it here for a while, and just seeing how far I push it.”
And the fact that I asked for help — many people jumped on board? How many people gave of their time and expertise, and their 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 this sort of philosophy now to everything I do: sitting back and the progression, how far you’ve come at this day to goal, you know. It’s important 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: know, show us more than one set of legs.
AM: Well, are my pretty legs.
(Laughter)
No, these are my legs, actually, and they’re absolutely beautiful. You’ve got to come up and see them. There hair follicles on them, and I can paint my toenails. And, seriously, like, I can wear heels. Like, guys 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 got to my height, exactly.
(Laughter)
Patrick Ewing, who played for Georgetown in the ’80s, comes every summer. And I had incessant fun making fun him in the training room because he’d come in foot injuries. I’m like, “Get it off! Don’t worry it, you know. You can be eight feet tall. Just them off.”
(Laughter)
He didn’t find it as humorous as I did, anyway. OK, now, are my sprinting legs, made of carbon graphite, like I said, and I’ve to make sure I’ve got the right socket. No, I’ve got so 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 it so it, like, “Shhhh,” makes this neat sound you jump around on it. All 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: Are a different height?
AM: In these?
SS: In these.
AM: I don’t know. I don’t so. I may be a little taller. I actually put 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 balance is a little bit of an in them. But without having the silicon sock, I’m just going to try slip it. And so, I run on these, and have shocked half the world on these.
(Applause)
These supposed to simulate the actual form of a sprinter when they run. If you ever watch sprinter, the ball of their foot 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 were standing on the ball of my feet.
(Audience: made them?)
AM: It’s a company in San Diego called Flex-Foot. And I was guinea pig, as I hope to continue to be in new form of prosthetic limbs that come out. But actually these, I said, are still the actual prototype. I need to get some new because the last meet I was at, they were everywhere. You know, it’s like a big — it’s come circle.
Moderator: Aimee and the designer of them will be at TEDMED 2, and we’ll talk about 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 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 in the 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 athlete on 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 I can 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 of people. They’re also silicon. is a really basic, basic prosthetic limb under here. It’s like a Barbie foot this.
(Laughter)
It is. It’s just stuck in this position, so I to wear a two-inch heel. And, I mean, it’s — let me take this off so you can see it. I don’t know how good you see it, but, like, it really is. There’re veins the feet, and then my heel is pink, and my Achilles’ tendon — that a 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, two years ago this in Belgium was saying, “God, if I can go to Tussauds’ wax museum and see Jerry Hall replicated down the color of her eyes, looking so real as if she breathed, why can’t they build a limb someone that looks like a leg, or an arm, or a hand?” mean, they make ears for burn victims. They do amazing with silicon.
SS: Two weeks ago, Aimee was up for Arthur Ashe award at the ESPYs. And she came into and she rushed around and she said, “I have to 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 for me, because it means I’m walking like that night long.
SS: For 45 minutes. Luckily, the hotel terrific. They got someone to come in and saw off the shoes.
(Laughter)
AM: I said the receptionist — I mean, I am just harried, Sheryl’s at my side — I said, “Look, do have anybody here who could help me? Because I have this … ” You know, at 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 feet that need a two-inch heel. have a three-inch heel. I need a little bit off.” didn’t even want to go there. They didn’t even want to touch one. They just did it. No, these legs are great. I’m actually going back a couple of weeks to get some improvements. I to get legs like these made for flat feet I can wear sneakers, because I can’t with these ones. So… Moderator: That’s it.
SS: That’s Mullins.
(Applause)