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Morning NewsCNN & Time: Jami Goldman Goes for Paralympic GoldAired February 25, 2000 - 9:46 a.m. ETTHIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Right now we have a story about a woman who took a tragedy and wants to turn it into gold, Paralympic gold. Sunday night on "CNN & TIME" we introduce you to Jami Goldman. She is a self-described former couch potato who transformed herself into a world-class athlete after losing both of her lower legs. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nice and open. Bring the knees up. KAGAN (voice-over): Jami Goldman is fighting for the chance to compete at the Summer Games in Sidney, Australia, as a member of the U.S. Paralympic team. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Runners come to your mark. Set. KAGAN: Goldman holds the world records for the 200, 400 meter sprints in the double-amputee category. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good, you're there. KAGAN: But to get to Sydney... UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Keep moving... KAGAN: The 31-year-old needs a big win in the Paralympic trials in June just to be in the running for a slot on the U.S. team. JAMI GOLDMAN, ATHLETE: It's very confusing and it's almost disheartening, but I also feel like if you want to become this athlete you're going to fight. KAGAN: Goldman's life changed after she and her friend, Lisa Barzano, became lost, returning home from a Colorado ski trip. In the early morning of December 23rd, 1987, the girls started out on what should have been a six-hour drive. ROBIN GOLDMAN, JAMI'S MOTHER: Her boyfriend called me about 7:30 that night and said, have you talked to Jami. And I said, no, why. He said, well, she should have been home, she left this morning and I left this afternoon, and there's no sign of her. And I called the police and they were absolutely useless at the time. I mean, she was considered an adult because she was 19 years old, he hadn't been missing 24 hours and nothing I said could persuade them that she should have been where she was and she wasn't. KAGAN: The girls' Chevy Blazer had hit a snow bank. They say they expected a snowplow to come by but none did. As night came, they split the only food they had, a cinnamon roll, and they waited. J. GOLDMAN: It snowed tremendously, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, just 24 hours a day; it was a huge blizzard. And finally, Saturday morning was the first time we saw sun, and we talked about it and said, we've got to get out of here. LISA BARZANO: So we tried to walk to the end of the highway, that we drove up. J. GOLDMAN; And all of a sudden she collapsed, and she couldn't go any further. And so I helped her get back to the car. BARZANO: I wasn't feeling well, so I took all the wet clothes off and put dry clothes on, and that was the day that Jami had noticed that there was something wrong with our feet. J. GOLDMAN: And they were red and swollen and real distorted looking, so we knew -- and that was the first hint that gave us that something is going on besides the pain. KAGAN: On the 11th day, the girls were rescued. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Both girls are safe tonight... (END VIDEO CLIP) KAGAN: They were found by a father and son who were out snowmobiling, and that's when they learned why no one else could find them. The state had closed off the highway because of the blizzard. The girls were rushed to Scottsdale Memorial Hospital. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: From day one they always said that the loss of her legs was a possibility. (END VIDEOTAPE) KAGAN: And so here you have a girl at the time who was 19. Before, she said she never even went to P.E. class when she was in high school, and through the inspiration of her family and from within she decided to become a world-class athlete. HEMMER: How old is she now? KAGAN: Now she's 31. HEMMER: Wow. So, watching her run down that track with relative ease, I have to think that there's a lot of credit given to technology to be able to give her the chance to the devices she was using. KAGAN: Technology, and now she's working with a coach, too. Those legs that you saw her running on, those are her sprinting legs. She freely and very proudly tells you that she has a number of sets of legs. She has her sprinting legs, her jogging legs and what she calls her pretty legs, which are the legs that she wears when she's just kind of out and about. HEMMER: Good inspiration. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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