Aimee Mullins

Aimée Mullins is an Olympian, ground-breaking model, beacon for design/tech and an actor. Born without fibulae, she was amputated below the knee at the age of one and learned to walk on prosthetics. She was one of three students chosen for full academic scholarship from the Department of Defense and at 17 became the youngest person to hold a top-secret clearance at the Pentagon. While at Georgetown she became the first female amputee to compete in the NCAA and was instrumental in the design of, and the first person to compete in, carbon fiber prostheses modeled after a cheetah, which are now the international standard for amputee runners. She set world records in the 100m, 200m and long jump. She soon made her catwalk debut for Alexander McQueen, becoming a muse for him and artists like Matthew Barney and is now in the award-winning Stranger Things. Mullins will be inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 2017 and is in both the NCAA and Track & Field Hall of Fame. She's also been featured in The Smithsonian, the Met, and the Women’s Museum in Dallas, where she's recognized as one the “Greatest American Women of the 20th Century.

[Programming descriptions are generated by participants and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of SXSW.]