Spina bifida is the most commonly occuring permanent birth defect, affecting about 1 out of every
thousand babies. It occurs because the spine fails to close properly during the first month of
pregnancy, placing the spinal cord at risk. For Jean is meant wearing below-the-knee braces to
walk.
Sibling rivalry created a competitive edge that has carried Driscoll beyond anyone's expectations,
especially her own. Yet peeking into the tiny office cubicle she shares at the University of Illinois
Rehabilitation-Education Services gives no evidence of her status. An observer sees only a hardworking,
energetic woman with a pleasant smile.
The climb to success has been uphill most of the way. Setbacks physically and emotionally have at
times caused the competitive edge to wane. Jean struggled to keep up with her older sister and three
younger brothers in their Milwaukee neighborhood through the 1970s, walking with below-theknee
braces. Her sharp mind gave her the confidence to carry on.
By fourteen, she found esteem by competing very well academically. Shortly after enrolling in a
college preparatory high school, she took a corner a bit too sharply and fell off her bike. The
resulting dislocated hip required five major surgeries and a year in a body cast. The experience
interfered with the academic success she was hanging on to.
More devastating to Jean was that she had to use crutches and a wheelchair to get around. `I was
very angry for several years,' she explains. `I couldn't make myself or others comfortable with the
chair. Losing my edge in the classroom, I moved from the school I had been attending to finish
with my class in the public school. I didn't want to be two years behind my sister. Graduating on
time in the top fifteen percent of my class did bring a little confidence back.'
Being introduced to wheelchair sports helped too, and she hesitantly tried them all - soccer,
softball, tennis... ‘People were falling out of chairs, they were tipping over, people were crashing
into each other,’ Driscoll remembers. ‘The whole world of sport was opened up to me. I learned
about a whole new life in a chair.’
Anger at God - who she knew only through church attendance, impersonal evangelist-types, and
being taken to faith healing services - turned her freshman year in college into disaster. The
problems mounted as she developing depression with suicidal tendencies when her parents
divorced and she failed her third semester. ‘I was disgusted at the thought of a wheelchair,’ Driscoll
says, ‘I kept asking myself, “Why is God picking on me?”’
One of her nurses, Lori O'Brien, sensed her desperation and asked her to work as a nanny for their
children. With literally nothing else to do, Jean committed to the job for one year. That was 1986, a
year that brought changes in all areas of her life.
The O'Brien family, who lived the Christian life in their home for her to see, were active Christians
and took Jean to church where she heard the gospel. Alone in her basement bedroom in November,
reflecting on her own relationship to God, Jean committed her life to Jesus, but didn’t totally
understand the significance of her decision.
About the same time a Milwaukee businessman, Jim Derse, provided a racing chair for her first
big-time national race - the Phoenix Sun-Times 10km. With minimal training, Jean took third place
- and a respect for wheelchairs began to emerge.
In April that year, Dr Brad Hedrick, now the Director of Rehabilitation-Education Services, saw
Jean in an exhibition soccer game and recruited her to play wheelchair basketball at the University
of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (UI-UC) which he coached. `I saw lots of enthusiasm and talent that
was unchannelled at the time,' he says. She was encouraged by his persistence, but before
transferring took classes at the University of Wisconsin to prove she had failed out earlier due to
extenuating circumstances. By the fall of 1987, she was accepted at UI-UC and became a part of
the world’s oldest wheelchair sports program, and eventually completed a Masters degree in
Rehabilitation Administration.
Helen Keller once said, `When the door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so
long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.' Indeed, for Jean doors
of happiness have opened at a rate faster than some of the world records she now holds. Among
these doors is her degree in speech communications earned while playing for the national champion
wheelchair basketball team (1990 and 1991) and participating in track. Marathons, Olympic medals
and world records were soon to follow.
Jean's wins in the chair are too numerous to list. Her successes include two Olympic silver medals
in 800m wheelchair exhibition events (1992 and 1996), ten Lilac Bloomsday 12km wins (Spokane,
Washington, 1989-1998), Paralympic medals in 1988, 1992 and 1996 (with a 10 000m world
record), the LA marathon in 1995 and 1996, and eight Boston Marathons (1990-00).
Driscoll’s first marathon was in October 1989, when she finished second in Chicago with a time of
1:59:52. This time qualified her for following year’s Boston Marathon, and started an annual
pilgrimage. Jean remembers back to her first race in 1990, 'I didn't think I belonged in the race. The
only reason I did the Boston Marathon was because my coach strongly suggested it. And when
coaches strongly suggest things, you end up going along with it.'
'Here I am on the starting line at Boston,' she continues, 'not believing I belonged there. I had heard
about the famed Heartbreak Hill, and I knew Boston was a hilly course. I had trained in
Champaign, Illinois, which is as flat as a pancake. I had not trained on hills - how am I going to
survive the race? I was fearful of surviving the race. But 26.2 miles later, I ended up winning and
breaking the record by over six minutes.'
Of the win and the record, Driscoll simply says, “I just put my head down and let my arms go.”
Many noticed Jean's success, among them the Women's Sports Foundation, who honoured Jean as
the Amateur Sportswoman of the Year in 1991. She had won her second Boston Marathon in April,
breaking her own world record, and established world records in the 800m, 1500m and 10km.
While Jean admits that being nominated and receiving the award from Jackie Joyner-Kersee, a
previous winner, are among her most memorable experiences, the rest of the story was unfolding
back at her university.
Jean shares it this way: ‘A newly hired administrative assistant, Debbie Richardson, was asked by
the women's basketball coach at the time to set up the half-time event to honour me. Debbie did an
unusual amount of research that expanded the recognition into Jean Driscoll Day, in both
Champaign and Urbana, on February 7, 1992. I first met Debbie three weeks prior and was
impressed with the peace and joy in her life. Since I had not nurtured my own commitment to
Christ, I knew I didn't have it, but I wanted it.’
‘It wasn't a force-feeding or Bible-thumping kind of faith, so I asked her one-day, “You're a
religious person, aren't you?” She didn't care for the word religious, but explained she was
committed to Christ and invited me to church. I said, “No, that's okay,” but the more I was around
her, the more I was impressed with her life. Just before my fourth Boston marathon, I did attend
church and in June recommitted my life to Christ. I took my Bible to the Olympics in Barcelona
where I would train, then go sit by the Mediterranean Sea and have some time reading and listening
to Christian music. This time I really understood what a commitment to Christ meant. Returning
home, I began a weekly Bible study and I was excited about going to church, the same one I still
attend. It's neat when you see God's plan in hindsight.’
Since setting the world record of 1:43:17 in 1990, the Boston Marathon is Driscoll’s annual
highlight. For each of the next four years she continued to lower her mark, setting the current
record of 1:34:22 in 1994. ‘I look forward to it every year,’ she says. ‘I feel stronger each year I
race at Boston. I receive a lot of support from my friends and family. Friends from my church
drove out there last year to support me… It’s a big deal to win there. It’s a race I want to win. I’ve
placed a bigger priority on it than even the Olympics.’
Since 1997, Jean's bids to break the record of most wins at Boston have given her a new insight into
trusting the direction that God has for her life. That year she caught a wheel on a trolley track at
Cleveland Circle, crashed and had to rally every ounce of energy to finish in second place after
righting herself and going on with a flat tire. Australian Louise Sauvage won.
In 1998, the final outcome was a shock at the finish line. Jean led throughout the race only to
realise as she started to throw her hands up in victory that the blue helmeted racer passing on her
right was Louise Sauvage. It took the race officials a minute to realise what had happened and they
apologised for stating that Jean had gained the record-breaking eighth win. Jean made her way to
Louise to congratulate her. ` It was God working through me that allowed me grace to do that,' says
Jean. ` Inwardly, I was devastated - I was shocked. All that training and I couldn't get any more
strength to push ahead of her. But I kept saying over and over, "Lord, be my strength."'
He was. Many journalists recorded her graciousness in losing as being equal to her joy in winning.
Again in 1999, Jean finished second to her Australian rival by a split-second. But her three year
absence from the winners’ circle ended in 2000, Driscoll beating Sauvage to collect her eighth title
and the record for most Boston Marathon wins.
‘When you finally reach the line and you go through the tape, it’s just an exuberant feeling,
something takes over. I get filled with spirit and so ready to share my excitement with everybody…
It’s all those hours, months, days of training, the frustrating workouts, the great workouts – it’s all
coming together at once.’
As a child no one gave Jeannie Driscoll much chance, but she succeeded anyway. ‘I was told from
the beginning that I couldn’t dream big,’ she says, ‘Nobody would’ve thought I’d have these
opportunities.’
` By God' s mercy and grace, I' ve done things most people only dream of doing. Of all my parents'
children, I would not have been chosen as the one to be an Olympian, to win the Boston marathon,
set world records, or jog with the president of the United States.'
At first Jean’s success in sport helped take her mind of her disability, but now she no longer needs
that crutch. With her relationship with God, Jean has an inner joy and peace knowing the God is in
control and does all things for a reason.
Thinking back over statements of those didn’t give her much chance, Jean smiles and puts it all in
perspective: ` What do those well-meaning folks know anyway? I am healed. I' m healed on the
inside.'
Jeannie Driscoll
