Loretta Claiborne was born partially blind, intellectually challenged, and unable to walk or talk until the age of four. Eventually, though, she began to run. And before she knew it, she had crossed the finish line of twenty-six marathons, twice placing among the top one-hundred women in the Boston Marathon. She introduced President Bill Clinton at the 1995 Special Olympics World Summer Games, won medals in dozens of its events, and holds the current women's record in her age group for the 5000 meters at seventeen minutes.
Today, Claiborne is a celebrated athlete who was honored in 1996 with ESPN's ESPY Arthur Ashe Award for Courage. Her life is recounted in Walt Disney Productions The Loretta Claiborne Story (originally broadcast on ABC-TV and now on DVD) and in the biography "In Her Stride" published by WorldScapes.
Considering all of Claiborne's achievements, these are just small steps in her life's mission to show that persons with intellectual and physical disabilities are equal to those without.
"I figured if my story could change a person's mind about another person, or especially a child's mind about another child, then it was the right thing to do," Claiborne says.
Running is not the only part of Claiborne's life. She holds a 4th-degree black belt in karate, communicates in four languages, including American Sign Language, and holds three honorary doctorate degrees from Quinnipiac University, Villanova University, and York College of Pennsylvania, making her the first person with an intellectual disability known to receive such honors, according to Special Olympics Incorporated.
Website: www.lorettaclaiborne.com/
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