Vincent Award #38: Mike Brannigan

This week's Vincent Award goes to Mike Brannigan. Mike was diagnosed with autism when he was 18-months old. His outlook didn't look good. But Mike, despite his medical condition, was always a pretty good runner. His parent's didn't realize just how good until they took him to a running club one day and he "just took off". He is has been running ever since. Mike is now ranked as one of the top 10 high school runners in the country. He just recently ran a mile in 4 minutes and 7 seconds. Mike has offers from over 200 colleges including Duke, Georgetown and Stanford. Mike will need some extra help academically but he is convinced he can do it. And why stop there? Mike's real goal is the Olympics, not the Paralympics, THE Olympics. I have no doubt he will make it one day.

The really amazing part of this story was that Mike's mental/academic capabilities went into overdrive when he started competitively running. Up until that point he was WAY behind other kids his age, which was expected given his autism. But once he started running something just click and he caught up. This is more than just a coincidence.

Keep running Mike and I look forward to seeing you on a future Olympic team!

The original story can be found at [The Huffington Post].

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