DUBLIN, Ohio -- Head to a track meet in Dublin and you might notice something different about one of the runners.
At track meets at Sells Middle School in Dublin, runners get in position and give it their all. They train, sweat and cheer together as a team.
On the team is 14-year-old Chloe Williams. She was diagnosed with autism when she was three years old and doesn’t speak.
At school, she uses a special communication device – and she loves to run.
“There is one little girl that she has passed before and it’s exciting because the girl she’s passing is saying, ‘Go, Chloe! You can do it!’” said Michelle Williams, Chloe’s mom.
It’s a challenge because Chloe gets distracted.
Last year, she needed her coach running by her side. But this year, her coach, Michelle Sheppard, came up with something new.
“We use walkie talkies and I talk into one and then we attach one to the back of Chloe’s shorts and then we run the wires up her shirt and into her ear,” Sheppard said. “I just tell her, keep running, keep running.”
At first, they weren’t sure it would work.
“The first time I saw it, I cried. It was just exciting because she looks like she’s a member of the Sells track team,” Michelle Williams said. “The way they cheer her on, as she’s coming into the finish line – she might be last, but I’ll tell you what. They are cheering for her as though she’s first.”
When track season ends this year, that’s not the end for Chloe.
She heads to Dublin Coffman High School and hopes to be on the track team there as well.
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