Sarah Reinertsen was born with a congenital deformity called proximal femoral focal deficiency.  When she was seven years old her left leg was amputated above the knee. At the age of 11 Sarah began running track, largely because it was the one thing people didn't expect her to do. At age 13, she first broke the 100m world record for female above-knee amputees; she still holds that record along with the current world records for the 200m and 400m in her class.  Sarah also became the youngest member of the US Disabled Track Team.

In 1992 Sarah represented the United States at the Paralympic Games in Barcelona, Spain.  Following the games she took time off from sports and began training to run in 5km and 10km road races in 1997.  She ran her first marathon (NYC) in a time of 6:28.

Sarah has run a total of 5 marathons and competed in numerous triathlons.  Her fastest marathon to date is 5:27:04 (London Marathon), which she ran in 2002.  In 2000, Sarah graduated from the University of Southern California with a Master's degree in broadcast journalism.  Her first job was for We Media covering the 2000 Paralympic Games in Sydney, Australia.  Following the games, she took a job in New York City working as an on-camera reporter and producer for "US Olympic Gold", a half-hour sports magazine show on NBC.  In addition she worked as an on-air correspondent covering the NYC marathon live on WNBC-NY. 

In 2004 she attempted to complete the Hawaii Ironman triathlon but was unable to get to the bike-run transition in the allotted time.  In 2005 her training paid off when she became the first female amputee to finish the Ironman triathlon.  In 2006 she was awarded the ESPY award as the best female athlete with a disability as well as participated in the CBS award winning reality TV show The Amazing Race.
To find out more about Sarah visit her website, www.iamsarah.org    

Highlights:

1992

100 meter world record – Paralympic revival