For the Deseret Morning News

Provo – Marlon Shirley has only been running the 100- and 200-meter sprints since 1999. Since picking up the events, Shirley has turned into the fastest Paralympian in the world and is the only person to run the 100-meter dash in under 11 seconds (10.97). What makes Shirley’s feat that much more incredible is that he had his lover left leg amputated at age 5. He now runs on a Flex-Foot Carbon Fiber foot that has the ability to store and release energy.

“Sprints are the glamour events of the games,” Shirley said on his decision to run sprint events. “You find out who is the fastest in the world, and that is something I sought after.”

Now he has slowly begun to reap the rewards of his six-to-seven-hour-a- day practice sessions.

Along with being the world record holder in the 100 meters, Shirley is one of the fastest Paralympians in the 200 meters. He is also the world record holder in the long jump at 22 feet and 3 inches and is know as a renowned high jumper.

Shirley’s abilities on the track have bridged the gap between what amputees can do and what able bodies can do. Last year, at a meet in preparation for the World Championships, Shirley placed second in the 100-meter dash against world-class athletes without any disability.

As time goes on Shirley hopes that gap becomes smaller and smaller. After the Paralympics this summer, Shirley said he is going to focus on running the 100 in under 11 seconds on a consistent basis.

In the Paralympic games in Athens this summer, Shirley expects to bring home gold medals in the 100, 100, long jump and 400-meter relay.

On Friday, he was at BYU competing in the Pre-trails Sprint and Power Meet.

He ran the 100 sprint and posted times of 11.13 and 11.15 in his two races.

Impressive times, but Shirley know he could have done better. After looking at film of his first run, he realized he started to slow down after 60 meters.

“I should have beat some of those guys,” he said.

Last week he ran his fastest time of the year at the Utah Summer Games by posting a time of 10.98 seconds.

“My boy went into shock after that,” he said. “Hence the reason I could barely run today or walk.”

Friday’s race at BYU also served as a valuable training session for Shirley. In February, he blew out his abdomen, and Friday was only his third meet since the injury. In two weeks, he will compete in an exhibition race at the U.S. Olympic trails in Sacramento. “Any extra race I can get, I’ll take,” Shirley said.

The world-class runner also has strong ties to the state of Utah. After being bounced around several orphanages at an early age, he was adopted by the Shirley family from Tremonton.

For the Daily Oklahoman

Running the 100-meter sprints is Marlon Shirley’s specialty. He proved he isn’t that bad in the 200-meters either, winning the 200-meter amputee men’s final Thursday at the International Association of Athletics Federations World Championships in Saint Denis, France.

Shirley, who is the only amputee to break the 11- second barrier in the 100-meters with a time of 10.97 seconds, beat seven of the fastest below the knee amputee in the world to capture a gold medal with a time of 22.93 seconds.

"I came off the corner with some speed and no one could catch me," said Shirley, whose prosthetics are made by Scott Sabolich Prosthetic & Research Center in Oklahoma City. "It was an outstanding race. I beat everybody by over 10 meters."

The nearest competitor was American Danny Andrews, who finished second at 23.60. Oklahoma City resident Roderick Green finished sixth at 24.96.

Some of the best track and field athletes in the world and future Olympians are participating in the two-week event. But the amputee race this year was the first such race organized in the IAAF World Championships.

Although Shirley was excited to win the first race in the event, he didn’t reach the goal he had set before the race.

"I had an excellent start, but I didn’t finish the way I wanted to," he said. "When I crossed the finish line I was disappointed that I didn’t set a world record."

The world record in the 200-meters is 22.71. The 25-year-old said his goal is to eventually run in the low 21 seconds and get closer to times of the top able-bodied runners. The winners of the 200- meter qualifying heats in the able-bodied races at the World Championships have been finishing with times in the low 20.20 seconds.

Photo: marlonrunning
Mike Hewitt, Getty Images

Photo: marlon_getty3
Michael Steele, Getty Images

An Oklahoma-based company, Scott Sabolich Prosthetics and Research is honored to become one of the first prosthetic company to offer the first-ever artificially intelligent ankle/foot for below-knee amputees, the Proprio Foot™. Below-knee amputee and prosthetist, Theron Hogue CP, LP, states, “ Being selected to be the first amputee in Oklahoma to wear this ankle feels great. In just a few steps it makes me feel more normal again.” The Proprio Foot™ replaces muscle function that was lost with the amputation, and enables amputees to perform activities on different terrains, instantly detecting changes in any surface.

Designed and engineered by Ossur North America, the Proprio Foot™ provides amputees with natural, anatomical functioning. This relationship between Scott Sabolich Prosthetics and Research and Ossur North America now brings Artificial Intelligence to the everyday amputee.

Scott Sabolich, CP, LP, owner and clinical director of Scott Sabolich Prosthetics and Research said, “ This new ankle isn’t just a new product – it’s a new way of life for amputees. We are now able to deliver artificial intelligence to all of our patients.”

With a limited launch of the Proprio Foot™, the world of prosthetics will have entered a new era: the age of advanced bionic technology. Artificial Intelligence perceived in such movies as AI: Artificial Intelligence, featuring Jude Law, and I, Robot, with Will Smith, is now a reality.

William Ethridge LP, reports, “30 years ago prosthetists were working with wooden knees. Now we are using computerized knees and artificially intelligent ankles. Who knows what the future will hold? I just know it will be state-of- the-art and will carry a ‘wow effect’!”

Ossur North America, a worldwide organization, based in Iceland, prides itself on advancements that make life easier for people with limitations. Scott Sabolich Prosthetics & Research is world-renowned for delivering excellence in patient care and techonological breakthroughs in prosthetics.

Contact:

Emily Remmert, 841-6800 or 659-6333

Joe Eddleman, 841-6800 or 501-186

Proprio Foot™ by Ossur is the first and only microprocessor foot to utilize the power of artificial intelligence with Terrain Logic™ software. In just 15 steps, individual style of walking is traced and recorded as a “gait profile.” The customized “gait profile” is then automatically launched each time you take a step. Terrain Logic™ software instantly adjusts and moves the foot when surfaces change. Amputees can quickly negotiate unexpected terrain without the risk of stumbling or falling.

With the Proprio Foot™ amputees are on the road to better health. Experience less stress on our back, hips and knees resulting in more energy and stability. Enjoy walking farther, climbing a few more steps and easily navigating slopes with hills.

See press release “Artificial Intelligence becomes a reality in OKC

The new features include:

Standing mode that enables the user to easily lock the C-Leg at a variety of flexion angles between 7 and 70 degrees so wearers can relax while standing.

Handheld remote control to switch between first and second modes to make slight adjustments to the swing phase dynamics.

Adapting swing phase dynamics to give wearers the chance to try different swing reflexion resistances without the hassle of an office visit.

Reduced number of service checks required to maintain the warranty, now only every 24 months.

Extended warranty is available but must be purchased at the same time as the C-Leg.

To see if you are eligible for an upgraded C-Leg, please call our office for a free evaluation.

405-841-6800 local

877-226-5424 toll free

Oklahoma City – Great strides in technology are inevitable in times of war – sadly so, Scott Sabolich said.

“Every time a war occurs, you see an increase in technology for prosthetics, which is good, because every 20 years or so we get a boost in research money for better materials,” said the owner and clinical director of Scott Sabolich Prosthetics & Research.

“The crazy thing is that it takes about 1,000 military veterans to lose their legs in the war in Iraq to bring about these kinds of things,” he said. “Little do people know that really about 3,000 people each week lose a limb in the United States, and there are another 56,000 a year that go on day in and day out with the same old technology until a few soldiers lose their legs.”

The latest boost comes in the form of an ankle: Proprio Foot, designed and engineered by Ossur North America. Sabolich is the first prosthetic company in the state to test and market the limb.

Company prosthetist Theron Hogue, a below-the-knee amputee, has been testing the ankle himself for about two weeks. So he’s pleased with the range of motion and the activities he’s been able to enjoy with the attachment.

“When you walk up a hill, the Proprio will let you place your foot flat on the terrain, up and downhill,” he said. “In just a few steps it makes me feel more normal again.”

The men said that replacement ankles previously were designed on the most basic of mechanical levers. Some sort of spring-loaded structure allowed the joint to be articulated, but it held the foot fairly rigidly in place at 90-degree angle to the leg. Anyone wearing such an ankle couldn’t place it evenly against an automobile gas pedal, for example, or walk with a smooth stride without the stubbing the toe.

The Proprio Foot is balanced by a small gyro and adjusted by many calculations in its microprocessor. It’s expected to be as successful and popular as the so-called “C-Leg,” which has revolutionized the prosthetics industry since it was introduced about two years ago. That limb is built with sensors that take weight and position data to calculate an amputee’s gait at variable speeds. Its creation was also driven by military injuries.

Although the current armor is keeping U.S. military personnel safer than past gear, arms and legs are still being lost to land mines and roadside bombs. According to a U.S. Senate report, the rate of surviving soldiers who have required some amputation from activity in Iraq is double its historic military rate of 3 percent.

Most casualties pass through Washington’s Walter Reed Army Medical Center. The Associated Press reported nearly 2,800 soldiers have been treated there, including 70 amputees, from Iraq service.

Sabolich said military amputees usually go back to their hometowns for additional prosthetic treatment. His center had helped two sent home from Iraq, Sabolich said.

“I just wish we were able to develop better technology whenever anyone loses a leg, instead of waiting for a war,” he said.

Reprinted from Metrowest Daily News

Natick – Heidi Thompson says she’d rather put a gun to her head than sit down in a wheelchair.

“If I can’t get there on my own steam, I don’t want to go,” she said.

Getting places on her own steam, though, is more complicated for Thompson than for most people. The Natick resident’s entire left leg up to the hip socket was amputated at age 4 when she suffered from bone cancer.

For most of the 32-year-old’s life, she had difficulty finding a comfortable prosthetic leg because her amputation – known as a hip disarticulation – is rare and more complicated to fit with a prosthetic.

By the time she entered high school Thompson all but abandoned the use of a prosthetic leg, opting instead to get around with a crutch, which allowed her to walk faster than on an artificial leg.

But recently she decided it was time to find a leg she could be comfortable with. “God forbid, what if I broke my left wrist and I couldn’t use my crutch,” she noted.

Not only that, but twice her crutch broke in an airport. The latest time was in San Francisco last year, an incident that forced her to take a ride in a wheelchair. Though she says she doesn’t care what people think about her appearance, her pride makes it difficult not to be able to move under her own power.

“It was mortifying,” she said of the wheelchair ride. “That was pretty much the final straw.”

While local prosthetists say high-class services are available in Massachusetts, Thompson opted to have a leg made for her in Oklahoma City, Okla., at the well-known Scott Sabolich Prosthetics & Research. She learned of the center from a TV new show about its treatment of Paralympic athletes.

“I really did want to go to the best place in the country, because I have a difficult amputation,” Thompson said.

Thompson, who enjoys bicycling and swimming, spent three weeks last month in Oklahoma getting fitted with a C-Leg, a state-of-the-art prosthetic that includes a microprocessor-controlled knee and shin system.

The microprocessor determines the phase of a person’s gait using algorithms developed after studying how thousands of people walk, according the Web site of Otto Bock HealthCare, the company that makes the product. Based on that information, it makes adjustments to provide stability.

It was Thompson’s first new prosthetic leg in more than 10 years, and she was both surprised by progress in the field and by how little has changed. She had gotten a prosthetic in 1993 but rarely used it.

In her new leg, the computer in the knee makes 50 adjustments a second to compensate for changes in her walk, allowing her to walk down stairs foot over foot, sje said. It’s a major improvement over previous technology, but she noted that her new leg hooks onto her in the same way prosthetics have been attached to hip disartics for years.

Trey Martin, Thompson’s prosthetist at Sabolich, notes “the prosthesis has to go completely around her waist, which is a lot more invasive and a lot harder to fit for comfort.”

Thompson’s new leg and related care cost nearly $82,000 – but was paid in full by her insurance company, Blue Cross Blue Shield, she says. Her only costs were for the hotel, food and gas for the car trip to Oklahoma.

Prosthetists say hip disarticulations make up a small percentage of amputations. Nearly 1.3 million Americans were living without a limb in 1996, according to the National Limb Loss Information Center.

While Thompson chose to travel out of state, people with similar amputations shouldn’t feel as if proper care is unavailable in Massachusetts, said Kathryn Penney, a prosthetist at Hanger Prosthetics and Orthotics Inc. in Worchester.

“All prosthetists are trained to make hip disarticulation prostheses,” she said. “There’s no reason for a patient to have to travel to Oklahoma if they’re local.”

Still, those with hip disarticulations are more likely to travel than most amputees because practitioners often have less experience fitting them than people with more common types of amputations, Martin said. The Sabolich center’s prominence in the prosthetics industry has allowed it to attract patients from 42 states, according to the center.

While in Oklahoma, Thompson spent a week or so testing a mock-up of her new leg to recommend adjustments that were incorporated into the finished prosthetic, Martin said. The leg is made of a high-tech carbon fiber also used for golf club shafts and airplane wings.

To look realistic, a foam cover and a painted-on coating that is similar to skin was added to the leg. Thompson’s leg, Martin said, even had a personal touch added – a tattoo of a butterfly.

“It looks very realistic,” he said.

Thompson says her new leg is far more comfortable than her past ones, but she’s still getting used to walking with it.

“I’m using muscles in my back that I haven’t used in 20 years,” she said.

Thompson is wearing the leg about six hours each day, and says she will eventually use it all day.

“I can’t wear it constantly,” she said. “It’s like breaking in new shoes.”

For the Deseret Morning News

When the man billed as the world’s fastest amputee first took up track and field as a high school student in Tremonton, he was already planning on a career as a computer technician.

Now Marlon Shirley is a professional athlete who competes here and abroad on a high-tech sprinting prosthesis and is training full time for the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens, Greece, with the goal of winning five gold medals.

He’s already won a gold and silver medal at the 2000 Paralympic Games in Sydney, Australia, and last June set a world record in the 100-meter dash at the Utah Summer Games, he became the first amputee to break the 11-second barrier.

Saturday, the 26-year-old participated in an invitational meet at the Utah Olympic Oval in Kearns alongside able-bodied athletes from Utah universities and colleges. He won a 60-meter dash exhibition race and finished fourth in the 200-meter dash.

"That’s the fastest I’ve ever run," Shirley told his parents, Marlene and Kerry Shirley, who’d driven down from Tremonton to see their adopted son run the 200-meter dash in 22.45 seconds.

They haven’t seen much of him since he followed some friends to a high school track meet and was discovered by a coach for disabled athletes. Soon, the abandoned boy they’d taken into their home at 9 years old was training for the Paralympics.

Shirley uses a spring-like prosthesis for sprint races, developed by Scott Sabolich in Oklahoma City, and is based at the U.S. Olympic Committee training center in Chula Vista south of San Diego.

He lost his left foot at age 5 in a lawn-mower accident at a Nevada orphanage. Later, he lost more of his leg due to a high school football injury.

Still, Shirley sees all athletes as his competition, not just those who are disabled.

"It’s not a matter of if I think I can, it’s how far take it," he said. "I haven’t even tapped into my ability yet."

His time of 10.97 seconds in the 100 earned him the 2003 ESPY Award as Best Disabled Athlete and the unofficial title of the fastest amputee in the world. Shirley said he is a role model for other amputees, showing them what is possible.

"It’s more awareness," he said. "They just don’t understand what can be done."

For the Broken Arrow Daily Ledger

Life is good for Michael Duran. He’s playing football and "that’s all I’ve ever wanted to do." The Broken Arrow High School junior is a happy young man with big, brown eyes and a bright smile.

Duran approaches football practice each day with a fervor. "I can’t imagine being anywhere but at the stadium (Memorial Stadium) every day at 2:40," Duran said. "Why would you want to be anywhere else?" He’s surrounded by his football buddies and good friends.

In every way, Duran could be a typical 17-year old, who aspires to play football. There’s something special about this young man, who by all rights, shouldn’t be playing sports.

When Duran was 10 years old, he lost the lower portion of his left leg and three toes on his right foot after contracting an infection. It’s nothing short of a miracle Duran is alive, much less playing football. He’s a living testimony to the spirit of life. "I heard the doctors tell my parents they had to amputate, there was no other choice," Duran said. "They were supposed to take my parents into the hallway and tell them. Instead, they just said everything in front of everybody.

When you’re 10, a lot of things go through your mind 24/7 – I won’t be normal, people are going to notice me … all those things." Amputation was going to be the best chance," he said. "We had two choices," Duran said. The other was being wheelchair-bound.

Having come within reach of death in grade school and being in a coma for a week, Duran has a stronger will than most. "I decided I wasn’t going to be different," Duran said. The son of Nararia and Robert Duran, he began a painful rehabilitation program through St. John Hospital. "I took baby steps, really, at first," Duran said. "Look now, I am running, lifting weights and playing football. But, what I did, I did hard and I did my best."

There was more. He was taken to Texas for extensive surgery on the sole of his right foot – and more rehab.

Duran, a member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, doesn’t seek attention and doesn’t perceive he has limitations. He’s made it clear he doesn’t want sympathy.

When Duran went out for eighth-grade football, he approached Childers Middle School coach Harold Hamilton. "I told Coach Hamilton I wasn’t any different than any of the other guys," Duran said. "I didn’t want him to cut me any slack. If I didn’t go hard, make me go again." Duran hasn’t slacked but "has gotten chewed on for not doing things right and got what I deserved."

He’s keenly aware some people are uncomfortable when they first see the artificial limb. "I don’t try to hide it because it’s a part of me," Duran said. "But, I don’t want people staying away."

If anything, Duran hasn’t lost his sense of humor. "When we’re stretching in football, coach will say ‘left leg over right," Duran said. "I’ll take my left off and set it there."

He tried a prank on some new student trainers this fall. "We have some rookies," Duran said, breaking into a fun-loving grin. "I went into the training room saying, ‘I have shin splints and need to ice down my left leg.’ It didn’t work but I came close to getting ice." When he plays, Duran wears a special protective wrap around his left leg. His biggest fear is reoccurring blisters under his right foot, which keep him out of practice and games. "I don’t like missing even a practice," Duran said. "I see those other guys out there giving 110 percent all the time; I want to be out there with them."

Marlon Shirley, a Symes amputee and top DS/USA and U.S. Paralympic athlete, has broken the long- standing 11-second ceiling for the 100-meter sprint by clearing the distance in 10.97. The feat occurred this summer at the Utah Summer Games in Cedar City in which Marlon came in second against a field of able-bodied runners. Another milestone was achieved in July when Marlon received an ESPY Award for Best Disabled Athlete. His reaction? "I’ve always believed that I could eventually break that 11-second barrier. It feels great to have accomplished that goal."

Up until the year 2000, the world’s sprint record for leg amputees was held by Brian Frasure, a below-knee amputee.

Noted the new champ, "Both Brian and I had the ability to go under 11 seconds. It was just a matter of who would end up doing it first!"

Back in the fall of 2000 after the Sydney Paralympic Games, Marlon was one of 800 Olympic and Paralympic athletes who gathered in Washington, D.C., at the White House. The Utah track and field athlete was given the honor of making a presentation to the President based on his outstanding performance in the Paralympics – he won a gold medal in the men’s 100m (T44) sprint, setting a then new world record of 11.09 seconds, and he took a silver in the men’s high jump (T46).

Years earlier, as a teenager, the Washington state athlete, a wisp under six feet tall, topped the former Paralympic high jump world record by two inches on one of his first tries. At that time, his personal best jump was 6’6" – impressive for anyone, but amazing for someone with one foot.

Marlon trains under Brooks Johnson, an Olympic sprint coach and head coach of the U.S. High Performance Team based in Chula Vista, Calif. He had previously worked with Bryan Hoddle, a USA Track and Field Level II instructor who was recently named head coach for the U.S. Paralympic Athletics Team. The two met at Idaho’s Implot Track and Field Games in 1997 in Pocatello. Marlon, a senior at Tremonton (Utah) High School, cleared 6’3" in the high jump even though he’d incurred a stress fracture in his good right leg just a week earlier. Four months later, Coach Hoddle had a new pupil.

Three years ago, Marlon focused on entering a range of 2000 Paralympic events, including the long jump and the 100m and 200m sprints. In the 2004 Paralympics in Athens, Greece, he hopes to expand the field to the 4 x 100 and 4 x 400, in addition to the long jump and the 100m and 200m races.

One of his first major competitions was the 1997 DS/USA National Summer Games in which he won the high jump with l.78m. In 1998, Marlon won a gold and set a world’s long jump record (20.4) at the Flex-Foot Ultimate Challenge in San Diego. He also scored bronze medals in both the javelin and the 100m. At the ’98 Track and Field World Championships in Birmingham, England, he earned a silver in the long jump (6.14m) and a bronze in the 100m (12.03). At the ’98 Summer Nationals, the DS/USA member took golds in the high jump, the long jump and javelin (43.75m) and a silver in the 100M (12.36).

Marlon turned in another outstanding performance at the ’99 Disabled World Championships in Barcelona, setting two new world records – long jump at 6.33m and high jump at 1.97 m or 6.6 feet.

He also came in second in the 100m (11.41), third in the 200m, and was part of the U.S. amputee foursome that won the 4 x 100m relay and took second in the 4 x 400m.

Later at the DS/USA Summer Nationals in Fairfax, VA, Marlon placed second in the 100m and third in the 200m. He won the javelin with a throw of 39.39m, the long jump with 6.24m, and the high jump with 1.91m.

In February 1998, Marlon ran a much-publicized race against the man touted as the world’s greatest athlete Dan O’Brien. The disabled athlete remembers a puzzled O’Brien asking an official prior to his race with an amputee, "Am I supposed to jog?"

Marlon answered with his feet, breaking the previous time of 7.15 established by amputee sprinter Tony Volpentest and setting a new 55m indoor record of 7.05.

A left Symes-level amputee, Marlon incurred his amputation at age six, while running next to a lawn mower; he slipped on the grass and slid under the mower blade, slashing his left foot. A later surgical revision took the amputation to the Symes level, leaving Marlon his left ankle and an intact heel pad. He now wears a Flex Sprint III foot from Ossur, coupled with a socket and alignment from Scott Sabolich Prosthetics & Research. Marlon is presently working with Ossur on the design of a new sprint foot that will increase the efficiency of amputee sprinters. It’s possible that a whole new generation of disabled athletes will benefit from such advanced technology.

For more information on Marlon Shirley, visit www.mshirley.com.