Single-mindedness and the autistic athlete
July 12, 2006 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
25-year old Asia Renning, who is autistic, attributes her single-mindedness as one reason for her success as a runner, both on middle and high school track and cross country teams, and as an adult in road races such as the Gallup Gallop and the Crim Festival of Races in Flint. The Ann Arbor News reports:
She still runs five miles a day, every day. In fact she once had a five-year stretch where she didn’t miss a day of running. That included the day after she had four wisdom teeth pulled.
Adair Renning, Asia’s mom, said:”She just kept bugging me, ‘When can I run?’ Finally I said, get some food in you and then you can run one mile on the treadmill, and I supervise.”
A similar single-minded focus while engaging in aerobic exercise is behind my son Charlie’s liking for 1-2 hour bike rides with his dad.
Sometimes obsession can be a good thing.
