Honoring Dick Traum, A Driving Force for Disability Inclusion
Achilles International mourns the loss of our founder and former President and CEO Richard (“Dick”) Traum, 83, New York, NY who passed away yesterday. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Traum family and our entire athlete community.
At 24, Traum lost his right leg above the knee in a car accident. In the years following, Traum became a successful business entrepreneur but his lifestyle became sedentary after the accident. Always an athlete at heart, he was determined to get back in shape, he joined the YMCA and found his passion for running. A mile turned into a five-mile race in Central Park and then ultimately 26.2, his first full marathon.
Dick was the first individual to complete a marathon on a prosthetic leg at a time when sports were not as welcoming or accessible to the disability community and before the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed.
An avid marathoner, he was named a CNN Hero in 2012 and was recognized in the New York Road Runners Hall of Fame and the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.
“I wanted to pass on the same joy I felt when crossing the finish line at the 1976 New York City Marathon. I wanted to mainstream our members … That driving force led to the creation of an international phenomenon, the true definition of the words rise up. Achilles is passion,” he once wrote in The Courage To Go Forward.
Just as he would tell his athletes, we say to him, “You did it.”
His personal achievement of crossing one finish line, ignited possibility and new start lines in others. What began as a small track club in Central Park over 40 years ago, has become a movement impacting the lives of thousands of people across the globe.
One of the first people he inspired is the late Terry Fox, the famed distance runner and cancer research activist who, after learning of Dick’s efforts, set out to run a marathon every day and raised hundreds of millions of dollars for cancer research.
Inspired by the Greek hero and warrior, Achilles, our name serves as a symbol of finding greatness and strength. The bright neon yellow shirts that are donned in parks and on race courses around the world are a beacon and a testament to his vision and the collective power of community.
We will forever be grateful to Dick for bringing us together and awakening in us the spirit of hope and possibility.
May he rest in peace. We will honor his legacy by continuing his race to a fully inclusive society and start line.
