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Special Olympics Team USA
This is a World Games of many firsts: the first time a Summer Games has taken place outside the United States, the first time many athletes have been chosen to compete, and thus to travel outside their native country...
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Katelyn Bouse, Team USA, competing in the 500m time trial final of the 2003 Special Olympics World Summer Games. [Photo by Alan Betson, IRELAND OUT] |
So when Katelyn Bouse, from Florida, was assigned the number 001 shirt, maybe she was destined for something notable too. The 14-year-old from Team USA was the first athlete to step on to the track to compete in cycling in the World Games. Not only that, she won a medal.
Bouse’s parents, Connie and Michael, are here to cheer her on. Her whole family is ordinarily situated around the track to give her support and encouragement. Her two older brothers and sister were hoping to make the trip to Ireland with their parents, but that wasn't possible. “All the family has been part of her progress,” Connie said. She explained how cycling plays a big part in the family’s recreation, and how Katelyn started out in the baby seat on the back of her parent’s bikes. “This provided the balance, but the concept of turning the pedals took a while to develop. This eventually clicked into place during a physiotherapy session when they tried her on a bike,” said Connie Bouse.
‘‘In a way she has been training since she was four,” Bouse smiled.
“I was awesome out there,” Katelyn announced to the gallery as she bounded up to meet her parents. “I did good, I smoked my tires.”
Everyone helped her on her way. Pro Cycles from her hometown gave her a custom-made bike, her coach Henry trains her each week and Bill Butler from her school takes her out doing laps during her school term.
--by Mark Ryan, Games Gazette
Special Olympics Lesotho
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Mampoi Leepa, athletics coach for Special Olympics Lesotho, is pictured with one of her athletes, Kelebone Ntsihlele, 28, from Maseru, has been a SO athlete since 1998, when the program began. He is a volunteer pastor in his community. [Photo by Kathy Smallwood] |
Mampoi Leepa is an athletics coach in Lesotho. Because of daughter Matarabo, a child born with intellectual disabilities, Leepa jumped at the chance to get involved with Special Olympics when the Program began in 1998. In fact, she was one of the first people recruited by the organizing committee to train as a coach. Leepa, a primary teacher by profession, and who also studied nursing in London, came back to Lesotho and integrated students with intellectual into her classroom.
She and Matarabo along with other Special Olympics athletes train every Thursday at a stadium. “My daughter is different now, happier and more proficient and she reminds me when it’s time to practice. She can hardly wait,” said Leepa. As a coach for Team Lesotho at the 2003 Special Olympics World Summer Games, she is exhilarated. "They are so welcoming and patient with us. They carry us like eggs.”
--by Kathy Smallwood, Special Olympics Managing Editor
Special Olympics Thailand
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Suwat Sangjan (left) and Sunti Hattaboon of Special Olympics Thailand, both athletics competitors. [Photo by Kathy Smallwood] |
Suwat Sangjan, is 10 years old and from the Nan Province in Thailand. He competes in athletics events; at this year's World Games, his events are the 25- and 50-meter runs.
Sunti Hattaboon, is 15 years old, from Nakornrachasima and has been participating in Special Olympics for two years. He's also an athletics competitor, participating in the 100- and 200-meter runs as well as the 4 x 100 relay.
They both love the social aspect of Special Olympics; the fact that they've found such good friends through the organization. They also appreciate the fact that it is a global movement, noting that Special Olympics gets people to be aware of intellectual disabilities all around the world.
--by Kathy Smallwood, Special Olympics Managing Editor
Special Olympics El Salvador
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Special Olympics El Salvado Alexander Castillo says "Sports also change the attitudes about people with intellectual disabilities in my country. It’s good for the athletes.” [Photo by Kathy Smallwood] |
Alexander Castillo, 25, a Special Olympics athlete from Mejicanos, would rather compete in athletics than do anything else. He said he’s been excited about sports since he was a child and thinks that sports in general are healthy and that’s another reason he likes them. “Many people in my country believe sports are heavy and hard. They are not, it releases stress. Sports also change the attitudes about people with intellectual disabilities in my country. It’s good for the athletes,” he said.
Castillo loves people as much as sports. He enjoys different cultures, and after crossing a continent he’s perfected the art of meeting people. “He’s easy to spot,” said coach Juana Montenegro. “Alexander tries to meet as many kindred spirits as he can and practice various languages. He has introduced himself to scores of people from different countries.” It’s easy to do that at Morton Stadium, the athletics venue. It is pulsing with a lot of activity and so packed with people that you can bump someone with your elbow — just the way Castillo likes it.
Montenegro, who has been a coach with Special Olympics for four years, and is a physical therapist, said, “It is excellent the way the athletes have been welcomed in Ireland, but it is not always the same in El Salvador. Life should be better for athletes every day not just here at World Games. But we are working on that!” she said.
--by Kathy Smallwood, Special Olympics Managing Editor
Special Olympics Russia
Athlete bags 25 new recruits!
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Since the story about Vepkhvadze's recruiting efforts appeared in the Games Gazette, she's become something of a celebrity, constantly fielding expressions of gratitude and admiration for her work benefitting the movement. [Photo courtesy Games Gazette] |
Brother and sister team Giorgi and Ekaterina Vepkhvadze are aiming to bring home plenty of gold medals from the tennis tournament at David Lloyd Riverview this week. They compete in singles, doubles and mixed doubles. In the months preceding the Games, they have been spending two hours every day training, with Ekaterina honing her skills with professional players.
However, in addition to her talent at tennis, there is something else extraordinary about her. She has been responsible for recruiting 25 new athletes in her home country to Special Olympics competition at regional, national, and international levels. Each time she recruits a new athlete, she notes it in a special book she carries with her. Of the four members of the Georgian Special Olympics tennis team, two were recruited personally by Vepkhvadze, and one of the others is her brother.
After her story appeared in the Games Gazette, Vepkhvadze has become a celebrity as she visits other venues, Special Olympics Town (an athletes-only area), and Festival Village (open to the public) — she is stopped constantly as others congratulate and compliment her efforts on behalf of the movement.
Ekaterina has been involved in Special Olympics for seven years while Giorgi Vepkhvadze has been involved for eight. They are both assistant coaches at the Leila Meshki Tennis Academy in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi. The Academy is named after famous tennis star, Leila Meshki.
--by Aisling Mackey, Mairead Brady & Maria Robertson, Games Gazette
Special Olympics Hong Kong
Special Olympics Hong Kong athlete Mei-Yu Lau, 16, is a champion. She scored a perfect “10” on the balance beam at the 1999 Special Olympics World Summer Games in North Carolina, USA, and hopes to be a master of her sport again at the 2003 World Games in Ireland. Lau lives in Taipo and has competed in Special Olympics for six years.
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The balance beam is Lau's favorite event, but she is eager to compete in all the gymnastics events that Special Olympics offers. [Photo by Kathy Smallwood] |
The balance beam is her favorite, but she vigorously competes in all the gymnastics events that Special Olympics has to offer. Just mention the word gymnastics and her face lights up. It is her beloved sport. Lau is a formidable opponent, and it’s no wonder — even when there is no formal practice, she practices on her own almost every day.
“Special Olympics has not only given me the opportunity to compete but also the confidence to compete. I am very proud of my accomplishments and where else would I get the chance to travel around the world?” said Lau. She is quite a celebrity at the special school she attends because of the gold, silver and bronze medals she has won.
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Siu-Yi Ng, coach for Special Olympics Hong Kong, and Mei-Yu Lau. [Photo by Kathy Smallwood] |
Lau is straightforward about her life before Special Olympics. Life was dull. She said she didn’t have much to do, and she wasn’t making a contribution to life. Now her days are full and she has many friends. Lau wants to coach once she retires from competition and sees Special Olympics as a lifelong involvement. Right now though, retirement is a long way off. Lau and the rest of the world’s best Special Olympics gymnasts are competing in front of “standing room only” crowds.
Siu-Yi Ng is Lau’s coach and was recruited for Special Olympics by the Hong Kong Gymnastics Association. A gymnastics and dance teacher by profession, she has immersed herself in coaching for Special Olympics for eight years. “Special Olympics builds confidence and creates awareness in athletes about what is happening in the real world,” she said. “It also helps promote and advance the status of people with intellectual disabilities in Hong Kong.”
--by Kathy Smallwood, Special Olympics Managing Editor
Special Olympics Ireland
Gormley's gymnastics five-medal gold bonanza
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Special Olympics Ireland athlete Eithne Gormley takes part in the ribbon event of the gymnastics competition, one of five events in which she won a gold medal. [Photo by Ray Ryan] |
The six Irish females competing at level one rhythmic gymnastics added nine gold medals to Ireland's medal count in one day. The achievement was all the more remarkable when one takes note of the fact that it was the first time any of the six had competed at World Games level.
Dublin native Eithne Gormley took first place in each of the five of rhythmic gymnastics events she competed in, resulting in a remarkable medal count for an individual athlete — all the more so because Gormley is 54 years old. She is likely to retire from competition after the 2003 Special Olympics World Summer Games, but even if she does, she intends to stay involved with the Special Olympics movement in some capacity.
--by Sinead Fortune and Vicki Hosking, Games Gazette
Special Olympics Mexico
Her love of sports is reflected in her body language. Just mention Special Olympics and Karla Nari, 25, bursts with excitement and energy. She has been competing with Special Olympics Mexico for eight years in the sport of gymnastics. Nari rigorously trains four days a week in floor exercises and vaulting at a gymnastics center in her hometown of Nayarit.
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Special Olympics Mexico coach Gabriela Perez (left) smiles proudly beside athlete Karla Nari. [Photo by Kathy Smallwood] |
At home, she’s a chef who whips up meals like soup, rice and chicken for her family, which includes her parents and two siblings.
Gabriela Perez, who has been Nari’s coach for four years, describes her protégée as meticulous. “She is a perfectionist. Even her clothing must be very clean and well ironed before she wears them.” Perez said Nari has definite clarity to her priorities and brings the same focus and dedication to her training.
“Although she is serious and no-nonsense about training and competition, Nari is warm and caring and very popular with other athletes. She has loads of friends,” said Perez, who first volunteered for Special Olympics at the request of a group of mother’s with whom she works. “I am a gymnastics coach for non-intellectually disabled children and the mothers asked me to train Special Olympics athletes along with the children that I normally train.” That was four years ago and Perez doesn’t conceal her love of it.
“It is very satisfying to see the athletes’ accomplishments,” she said. “Special Olympics helps athletes improve their coordination and independence. It increases their confidence when interacting with people in public, not just at school or working in the gym.”
--by Kathy Smallwood, Special Olympics Managing Editor
Special Olympics Argentina
Every athlete who competes in the Special Olympics World Games has his or her own tale to tell of a battle against the odds in order to achieve great things. But the story of Special Olympics Argentina's cycling team, which has three athletes competing, is notable.
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Special Olympics Argentina cycling team members, from left, Misael Taboada, coach Alejandro Feldman, Horacio Bustamante, and Carmen Barrionuevo exult in their success during the cycling competitions at the 2003 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Dublin, Ireland. [Photo by Tom Honan, IRELAND OUT] |
The story begins promisingly. The team had been training hard for the past one and a half years under head coach Alejandro Feldman. Before that time, each cyclist had been in individual training with other coaches. Their many hours of practice and exercise associated with training for prestigious international sporting event, such as the Special Olympics World Games meant the team members were in peak condition as they travelled to Dublin for the 2003 Games.
However, the economic situation in Argentina resulted in funding difficulties, which made it impossible for the cyclists to come equipped with the latest bikes and other cycling apparatus. In fact, some of the equipment that they were travelling with was so old that it didn’t survive the journey. Two of the three bicycles that came from Argentina with the athletes were damaged in transit. Although a team of expert mechanics did everything they could to repair the equipment when the pieces arrived in Dublin, one machine was damaged beyond repair.
"We were devastated when we realized we were a bike down for the World Games, because so much effort and training had gone into getting here," said Feldman. But the team was determined to carry on and enjoy their time in Dublin nonetheless.
Once competition began on Saturday, Argentina’s team of three had to share two bicycles for a variety of events in the Phoenix Park, some of which, incredibly, ran concurrently with each other — whas meant a lot of leg work for Feldman. "Yesterday I had to take one athlete off the bicycle at the finishing line and run half way round the track, pushing the bicycle as fast as I could so that the second athlete could begin racing," he said. They have become heroes in the cycling community as a result of their fortitude, because in spite of the situation, they had gone on to win nine medals in the first four days of competition.
Their story, which ran in the Games Gazette, obviously struck a chord with an anonymous benefactor, for the day after publication, new bikes were delivered and presented to the team. “We are really excited, we just can’t believe it,” said athlete Misael Taboada.
--by Elizabeth Flynn, Games Gazette
Special Olympics Uganda
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Special Olympics Uganda coach Samuel Mubiru and athlete Ambrose Mukwaya at Morton Stadium, site of the athletics competition. [Photo by Kathy Smallwood] |
Special Olympics Uganda athlete Ambrose Mukwaya, who has been an athlete for two years, is 12 years old and lives in Kampala. “I love Special Olympics because Special Olympics has a lot of courage and it has made a change in me,” he strongly declares. “They taught me how to do many things.” Mukwaya’s eyes reflect an irrepressible joy. He competes in the 100m and 200m races and the long jump.
He goes to a special school for people with intellectual disabilities, loves social studies and likes to help the other students, particularly his best friend, another Special Olympics athlete. “Sometimes others have difficulty understanding her, so I interpret for her.” Mukwaya said he genuinely loved the 2003 Special Olympics World Summer Games Opening Ceremonies, especially Arnold Schwarzenegger and “James Bond” (Pierce Brosnan) because they support Special Olympics.
His coach Samuel Mubiru joined Special Olympics after his brother, Alfred, 19, became an athlete. “He was very lonely and Special Olympics gave him a tremendous boost. He encouraged me to be part of it and I realized it would be fun. Special Olympics is now a part of my life.”
Mibiru said that being a person with an intellectual disability can be difficult in his country. Particularly if they look, speak or act differently. “But when you get to know people with intellectual disabilities, you learn they are just like everyone else.”
--by Kathy Smallwood, Special Olympics Managing Editor
Chinese Taipei
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Left to right, Chao Yi Quai, Head Coach of the Chinese Taipei delegation, Athlete Shu-Yi Chu, and Coach Chun-Jung Lu. [Photo by Kathy Smallwood] |
Chinese Taipei athlete Shu-Yi Chu, 18, has a gleam in his eye that reflects the awe of World Games. Chu has been an athlete for two years and has come to Ireland to compete in the 2003 Special Olympics World Summer Games. He said that Special Olympics has helped him thrive and become a better athlete, and he feels optimally prepared. “I have learned a new technique in running and enjoy competing immensely.” Chu is so impressed with Special Olympics that he is trying to persuade his friends to join.
His coach, Chun-Jung Lu, the head coach for the 2003 Games Special Olympics Chinese Taipei team has been involved with Special Olympics for five years. The athletes have stolen his heart and he thinks it’s important for people to give back to society to make other people’s lives better.
Lu thinks the gulf between students with and without intellectual disabilities is narrowing because students are integrated in high schools. “People with intellectual disabilities learn better and faster in schools that include mainstream students.” Lu is doing his best to continue that togetherness with Special Olympics Unified Sports®. “Students with and without intellectual disabilities have made new friendships and have begun to learn more about one another and understand what each others lives are like.”
--by Kathy Smallwood, Special Olympics Managing Editor | 
