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Wheelchair Medalist, U of I Graduate Driscoll Named Lincoln Laureate
Story date: Friday, February 10, 2012 from Illinois Public Media News
Wheelchair Olympic medalist and University of Illinois graduate Jean Driscoll has been selected as one of seven Illinoisans to receive Lincoln Laureate honors this spring.
Driscoll, who was born with spina bifida, began using a wheelchair at age 15. She’s the first 8-time winner of the Boston Marathon, and holds two Olympic medals and 12 paralympic medals.
Driscoll also serves as a motivational speaker. She says the very thing that limited her has propelled her forward in life.
“To have been the first person to win the Boston Marathon eight times, it still is incredible to me,” Driscoll said. “It took my racing coach two years to talk me into even doing a marathon. And then when I qualified for Boston, I put up a fight against that, because I didn’t want to do any more marathons. And here it was something that I was designed to do.”
Driscoll is also a motivational speaker, and currently the Associate Director of Development at the U of I’s College of Applied Health Sciences.
Others being honored include astronaut Jim Lovell, the late U.S. Army Sergeant and Model of Honor recipient Robert Miller, and former U of I Springfield Chancellor Naomi Burgos Lynn, the first Hispanic woman president of an American public university (Sangamon State University.)
The Order of Lincoln ceremonies will be held April 21st in Springfield.
