Mitchell's ultimate goal is to run in the Olympic Games. Todd and Smiley believe it is possible because Mitchell's times are competitive with the best high school runners in the nation and his improvement curve has been sharp. The best high school time for the 100 meters this spring was 10.30 seconds, by Dabryan Blanton of Forney, Tex. Mitchell's best 100 is 11.04, which he ran at the Pan American Games for the Blind, which were held in Spartanburg last week. Mitchell said that his Olympic ambitions were his own and that he had not been influenced by Marla Runyan, the partially blind runner who reached the Olympic final in the 1,500 meters last September in Sydney.
Track is track, disabilities or no disabilities.
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