AIM Member Debbi Spino is a race­walker. She competed in the Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, in 1992, Atlanta, Georgia, in 1996, and Sydney, Australia, in 2000. Now in her mid-40s, Debbi dreams and works to compete in a fourth Olympics, in Beijing this summer. She knows it will not be easy. “I am motivated by my desire to accomplish a fourth Olympics against the odds.” Her specialty is the 20-kilometer racewalk, a distance of nearly 12.5 miles. The United States competition is daunting enough with many other racers, some one-half her age, trying for a coveted place on the Olympic team. If she makes it to Beijing, and she will not know until this summer following Olympic tryouts, she will face the best in the world. Seven of the top 10 walkers are Russian, the other three are Chinese. In general, their walking speed is seven minutes per mile. Try running a seven-minute mile, then keep it up for 12 miles.

Interestingly, at one time Debbi Spino (under the name of Debbi Lawrence) held the world racewalking record at 1,500 meters. Converted to a mile, she racewalked the distance in slightly more than six minutes.

Debbi became a racewalker out of necessity. “I was a runner in college with dreams of making an Olympic team but I injured my knee and was sidelined from running.” So she took up racewalking. It was not, she remembers, “love at first introduction. I struggled with my inflexible running body and had to really work on the technique.”

Competitive running and racewalking have one thing in common – going from start to finish as quickly as possible. The similarity ends there. The difference is the movement required to be a racewalker. A racewalker’s back toe cannot leave the ground until the heel of the front toe is touching the ground. Then, Debbi had to master a technique called straightening. That is, her supporting leg must straighten from the point of contact with the ground and stay that way until the body passes over it. In running, by contrast, some forms are better than others but there are no rules – a runner tries to reach the finish line ahead of others and the form used to get there does not matter. For racewalkers, lack of proper technique is subject to disqualification.
You don’t spend more than one-half your life achieving a dream – a spot on an Olympic team – and then chasing another one – a four-time Olympic athlete – without a strong support system. For Debbi, it is family and AIM.

Debbi has spent her life in Kenosha, Wisconsin, – grade school, high school, college. Kenosha has a population of 96,000, is at sea level, located on Lake Michigan. She lives two miles from the lake. “My very supportive family lives here too.” Her brother and his family live next door. To her brother’s three little girls, Debbi is Aunt Debbi. “I love it,” she says. Her parents live two miles away. “They have always traveled to watch my athletic pursuits – from high school running races to sitting in the stands cheering for me at the Olympic Games. I am certainly blessed to be their child.”

Then there is what she calls her “AIM family. We protect our family name and share the common values we are all passionate about while maintaining our individuality.” She is particularly pleased that AIM Members “share common attitudes, interests, and goals.” Debbi, who is an AIM Director, had to travel halfway around the world to the Olympics in Australia in 2000 to discover AIM. “I became an AIM Member in 2000. My dearest friends, Grant and Kerrie Swain, are Star Sapphire Directors in Australia. They are my upline. They were such gracious hosts when I made the Olympic team in 2000. I spent three incredible weeks in their home learning about the business, seeing their gorgeous country, and falling in love with two of the most amazing people you’d ever come to meet.”

Debbi says, “AIM products have been a major part of my training and health program since 1992, the year of my first Olympic team.” Today, she takes AIM BarleyLife®, AIM Herbal Fiberblend®, and AIM Peak Endurance™ for “performance and recovery.”

Debbi is dedicated to growing her AIM business, she is also a fitness consultant teaching the benefits of exercise and nutrition. A lot of her time is spent working out for what she hopes will be a fourth Olympic Games. Her workouts emphasize endurance and include weight training.

There is not a lot of time for much else in her life. When she finds some surplus time, “if there is such a thing,” she says, it is a bit like racewalking – something out of the norm. “I enjoy grooming my angora rabbits and spinning their wool into angora yarn. I also spin sheep, goat, alpaca, llama, and even dog and cat fur, although I don’t have any of these other creatures. My portable hobby is knitting and I do this while waiting for acupuncture appointments or squeezed into tiny nuggets of time here and there.”

Debbi begins and ends each day reading the Bible. “That is the most important relationship on Earth,” she states. “It is our owner’s manual. If I could pass along a piece of advice to someone it would be to read the Bible. God is in control. He has a plan. I leave the worrying to him and I just walk.”

Walk into the next Olympics? While it is Debbi’s goal for this year, she tries not to get too caught up in it all. “In the past, when I’ve worried too much about the goal or tried too hard to get it, the results always turned out less than expected.” However, the goal is always there. She says, “Olympians are never ‘former or past.’ The title is a tattoo. I have three Olympic tattoos – 1992, 1996, and 2000.” She wants a fourth one. If it does not happen, it will not be from lack of effort or focus. In 2008, it is who she is. Someone trying to accomplish what only a few claim – participation in four Olympics.

“My first Olympic experience in Barcelona in 1992 left a major impression in my life,” says Debbi. “Never, never give up. You just don’t know how close you are to that goose-bump moment.”

Note: Debbi Spino is a member of the AIM Speakers’ Bureau. If you would like to have Debbi attend an AIM-approved event as a guest speaker, please check with Joyce (jjanzen@aimintl.com) or Rick (rcoffman@aimintl.com) at AIM in Nampa for details. Phone: 1-800-456-2462.

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