Loretta Claiborne

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Loretta Claiborne is an African-American global speaker who competes in the Special Olympics. She also won the Arthur Ashe ESPY award for courage presented to her by Denzel Washington.

[edit] Biography

Loretta Claiborne was born in York, Pennsylvania to a mother with five other siblings, with intellectual disabilities, a twisted foot and had to walk on braces. She couldn't talk at first, either. But she learned sooner or later and was able to go to public school rather than be placed in a group home by social services who was concerned. Since she is disabled and was in special education, she had to face discrimination from other students at school she went with. She first started getting comfort from her elementary school teacher's dog, Buster, who became Loretta's later on. She lost her temper and always retaliated, got into frequent fights, and it involved getting her into trouble and kicked out of a high school where she was transferred straight out of elementary school at fifteen for starting a fight with some girls who didn't want her on the girls' track and field she helped build and workplace for beating up a guy who unharmfully touched her hair. Her stuck-up older sister also despised her and got her in trouble one time when she talked Loretta into spending grocery money on bracelets for $10.00 instead. However, after her mentor, Janet McFarland, got her involved with the Special Olympics, a famous known international sporting corporation for those disadvantaged, at first although she didn't want to, her life changed for the better forever and she would win on account of her running speed which increased after getting her foot fixed through surgery. But after competing in the Boston Marathon, they tried to keep her from continuing in the Special Olympics only to let her back in during when she met the founder of the Special Olympics, Eunice Mary Kennedy Shriver, who looked at Loretta as both a hero and champion. She also learned the Russian language since she competed in the 1987 International Summer Games in Russia. During one year, she didn't travel for any competitions since she was taking care of her mother who died at one point.