Loretta Claiborne

Loretta Claiborne is an American runner and multi-sport athlete who competes in the Special Olympics, and a global speaker. She was born on August 14, 1953, in York, Pennsylvania, the fourth of seven children raised by their single mother, Rita Claiborne. Claiborne was born partially blind, with an intellectual disability and clubbed feet, underwent surgery as a child, and could not walk until she was four or talk until she was seven. Her mother refused doctors' advice to institutionalize her. At seventeen she took part in the newly formed Special Olympics and won her first medal as a runner in 1970. She has completed over 25 marathons and twice placed in the top 100 women finishers at the Boston Marathon. She is also a karate black belt and trains in sports from skiing to bowling. She received the 1996 Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the ESPYs, was the first Special Olympics athlete elected to the Special Olympics International Board of Directors, and is the subject of the 2000 television film The Loretta Claiborne Story.