Wisconsin Public Television
Transcript: "In Wisconsin" 204
Original Air Date: September 11, 2003
Winning Style

>> Patty Loew:
The woman in our next story seems to have her own endless reserve of energy.  Jean Driscoll is a
former olympic athlete and the 8-time champion of the women's wheelchair division of the
Boston marathon.  This Milwaukee native is new fueled by a desire to help young people reach
their own success in life.  

>> Narrator:
Milwaukee native Jean Driscoll has been a physical person all her life.  How else do you get
named number 25 on Sports Illustrated for Women's list of the top 100 athletes of the 20th
century?  Driscoll recently traveled to Wisconsin Dells to visit a place that helped launch her on
the path to the Olympics.  

>> Jean Driscoll:
 Here at Camp Wawbeek it didn't matter that my legs weren't strong.  Here at Camp Wawbeek, I
started learning the lessons that I was talented in some ways and I did have abilities and I could
help other people.  Other people didn't just always have to help me.  

>> I grew up in Milwaukee, I was one of five kids.  I was the only kid with a disability at my
grade school.  So I always felt like I was on the bottom of the totem pole.  

>> Narrator:
Driscoll, who was born with spina bifida, was a poster child for the Milwaukee Easter Seal's
Soceity.  

>> Driscoll:
So I was always expected to go up and get hugged and held by strangers, and I was so shy, I did
not like that.  But I got out of school for some really fun activities.  

>> Narrator:
But when she was at school, her favorite activities were sports.  

>> Driscoll:
I think a lot of kids who grow up with disabilities, myself included, you become accustomed to
sitting on the sidelines and watching everything else.  In grade school, I loved basketball.  And I
got to be the manager, and I loved volleyball, and I got to be the score keeper.  

>> Narrator:
Despite her leg braces, she loved physical activity, especially swimming and biking.  Ironically, it
was a bike accident that led to her athletic career.  

>> Driscoll:
When the doctor told me I would have to start using a wheelchair, I thought it was terrible.  I
thought my life was over.  I thought what can you do if you are in a wheelchair?

>> At first I saw the chair as being something that was going to make me dependent.  But the
reality was it's something that allowed me independence.  

>> Narrator:
The wheelchair also freed Driscoll from a lifetime of sitting on the sidelines at sports events.  But
she was reluctant when a classmate at Milwaukee's Custer High School invited her to try
wheelchair soccer.  

>> Driscoll:
 I thought no way, it's going to be stupid and hokey, it's not a legitimate sport.  I'm not going to
go do it.  But when I got to the soccer practice, chairs were crashing and banging, bodies were
flying all over the place.  I thought wow, this is sport!  It was so fun.  And then after wheelchair
soccer, I found out about wheelchair football, and wheelchair ice hockey, and tennis, and
basketball, and all these different sports.  And I started to realize I've got some talent, maybe I
can do something with these sports.  

>> Narrator:
Driscoll got her start in wheelchair sports in Wisconsin, but her ability to truly excel was realized
at the University of Illinois, a national leader in wheelchair sports program.  From there she
launched her wheelchair racing career, eventually winning the Boston marathon a record eight
times.  Jean Driscoll also won 12 medals at the Paralympics, and two silver medals at the
Olympics.  

>> Driscoll:
A very important lesson that people with disability can learn is that they have strength inside that
can enable them to, to do almost anything that they want.  

>> Woman:
Ready?  Can Get you get your hands right there?  Nice job.  

>> Driscoll:
Go Megan.  

>> People with disabilities are not necessarily frail, and they're not necessarily weak, and they
don't necessarily need to be treated special.  I have a real heart for encouraging people, a real
heart for encouraging kids, particularly kids with disabilities.  When I was thinking about the
comments I wanted to make to the kids here at Camp Wawbeek, I was thinking of ways to help
them put their disabilities in the background, so to speak, help them feel some of the same things
I felt when I used to come here to camp.  

>> Narrator:
Camp wawbeek, the oldest Easter Seals Camp in the nation, was founded near Wisconsin Dells
in 1938.  

>> Driscoll:
I remember coming in that door and being in one of these beds.  We probably would have
whispered after lights were out.  

>> Girl:
That's the same thing we do.  

>> Driscoll:
It is amazing to me the vision that Easter Seals had in creating this camp.  The vision that they
had to serve people who have disabilities, and help them be just like everybody else.  

>> Woman:
Sound like a good deal?  Give me five.  Good stuff.  

>> Driscoll:
 I think a lot of people overlook the importance of sport and fitness for people who have
disabilities.  Not just from the health standpoint and the strength standpoint, but psychologically
and emotionally.  You learn how to make decisions, you learn how to be part of a team.  If you
have a physical disability, oftentimes grown ups do not encourage their kids to get involved in
sports activities because they are afraid they are going to hurt themselves even more.  What
happened to somebody if the chair falls down?  Well, they get back up, just like somebody who
doesn't use a chair.  

>> I think kids need to see that other people have broken through some of these barriers, and
have gone beyond some of these limitations.  I embrace that opportunity to show kids and say
look, I was there, too, and this is how I used to think.  But now I'm here and these are the things I
have experienced, and you can do this, and you can do so much more. 

>>