FARAI CHIDEYA, host:
Having a leg amputated is something many people would see as a tragedy. But what if you were also a track champion? Well April Holmes is, and an accident caused her to lose her left leg below the knee. It actually motivated her to continue to do what she loved. Now April is a Paralympian and the world's fastest female amputee. Welcome to the show.
Ms. APRIL HOLMES (Paralympian): Thank you very much, Farai.
CHIDEYA: So tell me how and when you lost your leg.
Ms. HOLMES: I was involved in a train accident in January of 2001, and the result of the train accident was me waking up to find that my left leg had been amputated below the knee. Of course, I'm initially devastated, because I had run track and played basketball all of my life. And so I remember a few cousins and some - and my mom standing at my bedside when I awoke and I asked them, you know, what happened to my leg? And they kept saying, you'll be OK, you'll be OK. And I looked down and that's when I found out that my leg had been amputated. And so I was devastated. I probably spent days and nights, you know, being devastated, but just realizing that there was definitely something else that God had for me to do. And after the doctor that performed my emergency surgery, he gave me some magazines about the Paralympics, and that's when my dream of becoming the world's fastest amputee was born.
CHIDEYA: Now you ran track at Norfolk State University. After the accident, I imagine there had to be a really significant rehab and even though you had gotten these brochures, how long did it take for you to heal and then to even try to run?
Ms. HOLMES: You know, there was a five-year span actually between the time that I actually graduated from college and the time I actually got in to my accident. So during those five years, I was part of the corporate working world. And then, once I gotten to my accident, it was in January 2001 my accident happened. In March of 2001 I got my first walking prosthesis. By April, the end of April of that same year I was jogging on a treadmill. And a year later, I was actually at my first Paralympic track meet.
CHIDEYA: Do you think that you would have gone back to running if you didn't have that accident?
Ms. HOLMES: No, no, not at all. I actually had just begun working on my MBA in marketing at Drexel University at the time, so that was where I was headed. I mean, I knew that after track and field was over in college, I used that as a vehicle to get my education paid for ,and after that I just, you know, settled into the work world with the rest of the American population.
CHIDEYA: You've done work with kids actually showing them your leg, or rather your legs, because now you have different types of prostheses that are suited for different things. Tell us about what these devices are. You have different kinds. What do those look like? What do they cost? Things like that.
Ms. HOLMES: I've been very very fortunate to have a prosthetic sponsorship with a company by the name of Ossur and so they make most of my prosthetic legs. There's a different leg that I walk on than the one that I run one. The one that I walk on looks, if I pull my pants leg up because it has a cosmetic cover on it, looks very much similar to my other leg. In fact, a lot of times people say now which leg is it by the way? Because like I said, it has a cosmetic cover so it has very much the same similar variances to my other leg. But my running leg is called a Cheetah Flex Foot and that's - all I do is run on that particular leg. So these devices are very expensive and unfortunately a lot of insurance companies don't pay for things like that because they claim that they're cosmetic things like you don't really need them to live or whatever, so. I've just been very blessed and very fortunate in the whole instance.
CHIDEYA: You've also got a deal with Nike, right?
Ms. HOLMES: Jordan brand.
CHIDEYA: The Jordan brand part of the Nike empire?
Ms. HOLMES: Yes, absolutely.
CHIDEYA: So what do they provide you with, shoes? Or...
Ms. HOLMES: You know what, they provide me with so much more than just shoes and things. They have an entire family atmosphere at the Jordon brand. I'm the first woman of the Jordan brand. And they've been very helpful and instrumental and supportive in things that I've been able to do in terms of going out and giving away shoes, donating shoes and donating equipment to other people. And I donated some to a team down North Carolina, a basketball team down north Carolina. And I'm actually in the process of starting an essay contest for people with physical disabilities. And the winners, we're going to give out a hundred pair of Jordan sneakers. So we've done a lot of things in the community in terms of speaking engagements, in terms of both promoting my community efforts and for them to be able to outreach into another aspect of the community in the disabled community.
CHIDEYA: You're in the 100, 200, 400 meters. Those are short races. What are your competitors like? And do you guys have any camaraderie? You're competitors for a while, but do you guys talk? Do you guys compare stories?
Ms. HOLMES: It's funny, because I hold the world record in the 100, 200 and 400 meters. And so I think a lot of times people hope that I don't show up.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Ms. HOLMES: So that can be very interesting. But I mean I try - I look at it like one of these days will come and I'll have to hang my spikes up. So I try to as much as possible impart as much wisdom as I can to, you know, to my fellow competitors.
CHIDEYA: Let's talk about the upcoming Paralympics. There are a couple of issues that have come up in terms of the - basically the races that people who are amputees run. A South African double-amputee sprinter has prosthetic legs and he was barred from competing in the Beijing Summer Olympic games. Not the Paralympics. Track officials say he can actually run faster because of the way those special running prostheses are shaped. Do you think that was a fair decision?
Ms. HOLMES: I think every athlete will tell you that they are - I think almost every athlete has a gene in them that's more strictly designed for competiveness. If you're an athlete you just want to compete, you just want to go out there and do your best. You just want to beat people who are maybe better than you. So in any situation, I've told a number of people that, you know, every situation that we as disabled people get to have in front of the media in terms of our dreams, it's also promoting our sport. And so, you know, if this situation or any other situation that comes as far as a disabled athlete being able to compete against what's termed able-bodied athletes, then I think it brings greater awareness to our sport and I definitely - anyone one whichever, whatever their dreams are, I encourage them to you know go after their dream, whatever their dream is. Unless they're actually hurting someone, then I encourage people just to go after their dream and, you know, be the best that they can be.
CHIDEYA: April, thanks so much.
Ms. HOLMES: Thank you so much.
CHIDEYA: April Holmes is a Paralympian and the world's fastest female amputee. She joined us from our NPR Studios in New York City.
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