Miles, medals, an ESPY & movie mark Loretta Claiborne's Special Olympics journey

It might well be that no one has spent more years — and run more miles — with Special Olympics than Loretta Claiborne, an athlete turned leader in the movement.

Claiborne was born in 1953 with partial blindness and an intellectual disability at a time when people with her diagnosis were frequently shunted into institutions. Her mother, who was supporting seven children on a very small income, refused the advice of doctors who suggested the same fate for her daughter.

Loretta Claiborne, left, and her siblings. | Photo provided by Special Olympics

Her mother’s support kept Claiborne out of an institution, but her time in special education classes in York, Pennsylvania, came with its own set of challenges. She found herself mocked and excluded by her schoolmates.

Special Olympics came into her life at a difficult moment, as years of frustration threatened to boil over. The prospect of competing in Special Olympics proved capable of calming her — and opened a new world of accomplishment and advocacy.

“When I first went to Special Olympics I was angry. I didn’t think I would be worth two cents. But a coach told me, ‘Loretta, you’ve got to stop using your fists, and use your feet more. You are beautiful, you can learn, you can do anything.’ And if I wouldn’t have walked into that coach, I would probably be sitting in an institution today,” Claiborne said.

She first ran in Special Olympics in 1970, at the launch of the program in Pennsylvania. In the decades that followed, Claiborne has continued to compete, winning six gold medals at six iterations of Special Olympics World Games.

Claiborne has also taken part in more than two dozen marathons and a diverse array of other sports. Her best time in those marathons — three hours, three minutes in the Boston Marathon in 1982 — placed her in the top 100 women finishers on the day.

She gave back to the movement as one of its leading spokespeople. She became the first Special Olympics athlete to serve on the organization’s board and she currently works as its “Chief Inspiration Officer.”

Claiborne has also advocated for disabled people more broadly, speaking before Congress and the United Nations.

“I am here to ask you to see me. Recognize me, and those like me, when goals and strategies are set. See not our disability, but what we can contribute if we have access to basic services. And recognize that in many ways, the greatest disability we face is external, and it is one of stigma and falsely low expectations that society has about what we can achieve,” Claiborne told the UN Assembly High Level Meeting on Disability in 2013.

She has been extensively recognized for her work, including ESPN’s Arthur Ashe Courage Award in 1996 and honorary degrees from Quinnipiac University and Villanova University. In 2000, Disney produced a biographical film about her life called “The Loretta Claiborne Story.” A picture of Claiborne alongside Special Olympics founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver hangs in the National Portrait Gallery.

Claiborne receiving an ESPY Award | Special Olympics

After completing a race more than a decade ago, Claiborne told an interviewer she hoped her performance would convince spectators of the potential lying behind the challenges faced by those diagnosed with intellectual disabilities.

“I think today the people watching me run, it goes to show what we can do — in sports, that is. But it opens their minds. And some people will say, “if these people can run like this, then also they can live in our community and work in our community,” Claiborne said.

This story is part of a special section commemorating the 50th anniversary of Special Olympics. Special Olympics staffers and Chicago Sun-Times journalists collaborated in the production of this section.

Miles, medals, an ESPY & movie mark Loretta Claiborne’s Special Olympics journey

Read more about Special Olympics: