"What Can I Do for Others?"
Dick Traum passed away on January 23, 2024. NYRR mourns his loss and honors his many achievements and contributions.
When Dick Traum was 24 years old, he lost his right leg above the knee in a car accident. A former college wrestler, Dick wanted to remain active but like many people in their 20s he got busy with work, lost fitness, and gained weight despite good intentions. After someone made a comment about his big stomach, Dick joined New York’s West Side YMCA and was introduced to jogging.
“At the Y they wouldn’t let you do situps and pushups unless you could run, so I did,” he said. “I needed to exercise—I was scared I was going to have a heart attack. Once I started running, I didn’t stop. A mile, two miles, I just kept working up.”
Training for 26.2
Dick ran a 5-mile race and joined NYRR, which at the time used office space at the Y. In 1976, at age 35, he signed up to run the New York City Marathon. As a tune-up he ran a 30K race (18.6 miles) in Central Park.
“I knew I could do a marathon,” he recalled. “My stride with the prosthesis was a hop-skip, but once I got going I could go and go.” Still, 26.2 miles was a challenge; 1976 was the first five-borough New York City Marathon and the course—almost identical to today’s—included five windswept bridges, potholed streets, and lots of hills.
When Dick crossed the finish line in a time of 7 hours and 24 minutes, he became the first known amputee runner to complete a marathon.
Other people with disabilities heard about Dick’s achievement and were inspired, including Terry Fox, a Canadian athlete whose right leg was amputated in 1977 after a cancer diagnosis and who pioneered running long distances to raise money and awareness for cancer research; since Fox’s death in 1981 the annual Terry Fox Run has raised over $800 million.
Running for Others
Dick ran the New York City Marathon again in 1977, 1979, and 1981, and he spent more and more time helping other people with disabilities compete in sporting events. In 1983 he founded Achilles International, an organization whose mission is to enable people with all types of disabilities to participate in mainstream running events in order to promote personal achievement. Achilles has empowered over 150,000 athletes of all ages and abilities to participate in endurance events; it has 140 chapters in 70 countries.
Dick completed 11 marathons using a prosthesis and dozens more using a handcycle. For his achievements, he is a member of the NYRR Hall of Fame and the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. In 2012 he was named a CNN Hero.
“Never Surrender”
Dick had begun working with several partners to create a documentary to tell his story and those of other athletes with disabilities. The working title was “Never Surrender.”
“‘Never surrender’ is the attitude of a number of people I’ve met in the AWD community who take a hit, survive it, and then think ‘What can I do for others?’” he said. “What I’ve been able to do is give people the opportunity to achieve through sport.”