Heidi Musser

Heidi has lived her 39 years without any light perception at all.  39 years of complete darkness.  Ostracized from society as a child, abandoned from schools, picked on, and made fun of, Heidi proved them all wrong.  Heidi is the world's first female blind Triathlete.  Throughout her years,  Heidi has taught hundreds of other children, sighted and blind, how to sing, play the piano, and read Braille.  Heidi partnered with the late Senator Paul Simon to build a library for the blind in Chicago, IL.

 

"People never believed in me when I was young because I was tiny and blind.  I will prove them wrong."

Blind Triathlete Inspires Others
By Harry Porterfield

 

August 25, 2006 - Blind since birth, Heidi Musser is one triathlete whose passion is to inspire others.

I don't train regularly because I'm a student at Oakton community college," said Musser. "When I was two and a half years old, I swam before I walked.

Musser is one of 8,000 people who will participate in the Chicago triathlon. She will swim one mile and bike 24.8 miles along Lake Shore Drive.

Musser is no stranger to the triathlon. She's competed in 20 of them.

She makes the big statement I'm handicapped. I'm blind. I'm totally blind but so what? I can do many things as long as I have friends who want to do it with me," said Erika Musser, Heidi's mom.

A third component of the triathlon is the 6.2 mile run, a challenge which 40-year-old Heidi finds the most difficult.

I swam and I bike all my life...but running was always my weakest since the time I was a child," said Musser.

So why does shoe do it?

To inspire others and to prove to them that if I can do it you can do it also," said Musser.