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Henderson taking strides toward Tokyo 2020

Lacey Henderson is a record-holding long jumper and an amputee.

AUSTIN, Texas — Lacey Henderson is just like you and me. She has dreams and goals, obstacles and battles. She's grateful for today and at peace with the past.

"I wake up and get to do something that I love every day. I get to move my body when that was possibly not an option," she said.

When Henderson was nine years old, she was diagnosed with a soft-tissue cancer called synovial sarcoma. Doctors were forced to amputate her right leg to save her life.

"There was no other option besides getting better," she said.

At the time, doctors considered Lacey's diagnosis the rarest case ever documented. Her chances of surviving were less than 20%.

"Our focus wasn't really on dying, our focus was on doing whatever we could to get better," she said.

Lacey not only got better, she broke records.

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In her first year of long jumping, she broke a 17-year American record. Next, she broke the North American and South American region record.

She competed in Rio at the 2016 Paralympic Games, and now, at age 30, has her sight's set on the 2020 Games in Tokyo.

"In the United States, there's not many amputees that are doing long jump at a professional level," she said.

RELATED: US Olympic Committee adds Paralympic to its name

She believes she's the only one in Austin. It's a platform that she's seized to inspire and, more importantly, to normalize her disability.

"Most athletes put their shoes on and then they go. I put my shoes on, and then my leg on, and then I go," she said. "Inclusion, equality, all of that is important, but I think just normalizing things that are different, that's really where we have acceptance."

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