Photo: Thinkstock

What were you doing when you were twenty? Daring...to change your major? Beating the odds...to get the biggest room of all your roommates?

Meet our new favorite 20-year-old, Ashley Fiolek. According to the New York Times magazine, the 5"2 Fiolek is the first woman to be signed to a major corporate motocross team and to twice win the X Games Motorcross gold. Pretty ballsy, particularly in a super-macho sport like motocross. But that's not all. Fiolek has been deaf since birth. "“I have been told that most people use sound to know when to shift,” she told the Times. “I feel when my motorcycle needs to shift. The engine’s vibrations change and I know it’s time.”

Can we all please just have an ounce of this woman's confidence?  She's not letting anyone tell her that she can't do what she wants, refusing even to see a disability as a disadvantage. It makes a person feel awfully silly for making excuses about why one can't do this or that. Get on that metaphoric dirt-bike today, why don't you, and feel what the vibrations are telling you.

More athletic inspiration:
The unexpected connection between spirituality and extreme sports.
Billie Jean King and 4 other women who changed everything.
Marion Jones opens up to Oprah.