02 February 2009

Special Olympics Athletes Set to Compete in 2009 Winter Games

“Unified” teams boost equality, inclusion, says official

Special Olympics Team USA athlete Loretta Claiborne and Tim Shriver, Special Olympics chairman, at the 2005 World Winter Games in Japan

By Carolee Walker
Staff Writer

Washington — While growing up, athlete Loretta Claiborne remembers, she was told by those around her what she could not do.

“I had the feeling that I couldn’t do anything,” said Claiborne, 55, who was born visually impaired and unable to walk or talk until age 4. “The Special Olympics turned me around,” she said. “It turned my life around.”

Claiborne began training with Special Olympics, which opens the 2009 World Winter Games on February 7 in Boise, Idaho, as a runner in 1970. A Special Olympics coach spotted her running on a track near her home in a poor neighborhood in Pennsylvania. Since then, she has competed in more than 26 marathons, often finishing among the fastest women runners. Claiborne won gold medals in the 1991 and 1999 Special Olympics World Games. She is also the first Special Olympics athlete elected to the Special Olympics International board of directors.

Special Olympics, founded in the United States in 1968, encourages people with intellectual disabilities to become physically fit, productive, and respected members of society through sports training and competition. Today, more than 2.8 million people participate in more than 200 Special Olympics programs in 180 countries.

Claiborne, an all-around athlete who enjoys tennis and rollerblading in addition to running, will compete in figure skating in Boise’s Winter Games. She took up figure skating a few years ago and will be competing in the ice dance competition.

GAMES BREAK DOWN BOUNDARIES

The power of sports to transform the lives of people with intellectual disabilities has been recognized for many years, said Kirsten Suto Seckler, Special Olympics spokeswoman. “We also learn from these athletes how to build a more accepting world, inspiring connections with individuals [that cross] lines of race, ethnicity and disability,” she said.

The goal of the 2009 games is to show that people with intellectual disabilities can and will succeed if given the opportunity, Seckler said. The games are as much about acceptance and understanding as they are about excellence in athletic ability, she added.

The Boise games — the largest ever, with more than 2,500 athletes and their coaches participating from 100 countries — celebrate diversity and service, said Tim Shriver, chairman of Special Olympics. “At a time when the new [Obama] administration has called our own nation to service, these games break down boundaries and challenge the world to overcome stigma.”

Attila Szegfű, second from left, at the Lincoln Memorial during the Hungarian team’s road trip leading up to the 2009 Games in Idaho.

Special Olympics is now a movement about community building and not just about overcoming disabilities, said Shriver, whose mother, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, is the organization’s founder.

For example, Special Olympics Unified Sports combines Special Olympics athletes and athletes without intellectual disabilities on teams for training and competition. Unified floor hockey will be offered at the Boise World Games.

These combined teams provide another level of challenge for athletes and promote equality and inclusion, Shriver said.

HUNGARIAN DELEGATION TAKES U.S. ROAD TRIP

Nine members of the Hungarian delegation, including athlete Attila Szegfű who competes in the Summer Games as a runner and a cyclist, began a U.S. road trip in Washington leading up to the Boise games.

“There is not a lot of awareness about people with disabilities in Hungary,” said David Magyar, a university student and a member of the Hungarian delegation, which is traveling in recreational vehicles outfitted with wireless computer connections, sleeping quarters and cooking facilities. Before greeting the Hungarian team at the Boise games, the delegation has stops planned in Niagara Falls in New York state, Chicago, Cleveland, Denver, Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming and Salt Lake City.

“In the United States, everyone recognizes Special Olympics — it’s still different in Hungary,” Magyar said. “You see in the United States and in some other countries that everyone lives together.”

“People with disabilities will be treated better [in Hungary],” said the delegation’s Washington host, Adrienne Szabo, a real estate broker. “It’ll just take some time, and people in Hungary need to see how it is done in other places.”

George Soos, a professional photographer in Hungary, is documenting the road trip so the group can share its stories with communities in Hungary.

Wei Xiang, owner of the Hungarian athletic wear company Wink, which began sponsoring Special Olympics programs in Hungary 16 years ago, and his son, Wei Zifeng, an architecture student in the United Kingdom, are also on the trip.

“Sponsoring Special Olympics has been a great opportunity for me to give back to the sports community, which has been so good to me over the years,” Xiang said. “This is my way of thanking the athletes.”

For additional information, see the  Special Olympics and 2009 Special Olympics World Winter Games Web sites.