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| Legally blind runner makes U.S. Olympic team
SportsLine.com wire reports
Marla Runyan cannot see the facial features or expressions of her fellow runners as she races down a track.
Even her coach, standing 10 meters away, is a blur.
But Runyan has achieved a dream millions of runners never will. The 31-year-old from Eugene, Oregon, made the U.S. Olympic team, becoming the first legally blind person ever to do so for either the summer or winter Games.
A stirring stretch run put her on the U.S. team for Sydney as the third - and final - women's 1,500-meter qualifier at the U.S. Olympic trials.
"Coming off the (final) turn I knew I was in third," Runyan said. "I knew I had it. This was my dream coming true."
A degeneration of the retina called Stargardt's disease, which she has had since age 9, has left her with a hole in the centre of her vision. She has 20-300 vision in one eye, 20-400 in the other.
But she has never considered it a barrier.
"My vision is just a circumstance that happened," she said. "I never really think that much about my vision as much as the media does. And I don't think my competitors do either. I just think about my personality and the person I am. I'm definitely an athlete."
"I never said to myself, I want to be the first legally blind Olympian. I just said I wanted to be on an Olympic team."
"She is incredibly courageous," said Regina Jacobs, who won the race.
Not even a leg injury that kept Runyan from running for most of June or a bump on the second lap of the race where she had to reach out and touch a fellow competitor to steady herself could keep her from the finish line.
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