The Thrill Of Victory First Place Is Rarely The Only Sign Of Triumph At Special Olympics World Winter Games

This year’s plentiful snow has been a boon for Sandpoint’s Jerry Heraper.

It’s allowed the 66-year-old showshoer to train plenty, without even leaving his neighborhood. Now Heraper is headed to Toronto to compete on Team USA at the Special Olympics World Winter Games.

Heraper will join about 2,000 athletes from 80 countries at the international competition. It’s the pinnacle of the Special Olympics, a program that provides year-round sports training and competition for mentally challenged people of all ages.

“You have to be in good shape for snowshoe,” Heraper said Thursday, as he gathered for a news conference in Boise with the one other Idaho athlete and one coach also headed for Toronto. “For the World Games, I practice about three or four times a week.”

Heraper spent four days training with the U.S. team at Lake Placid, N.Y., in December, and has done a little snowshoeing around Schweitzer Mountain. But most of the time, “I hiked around the neighborhood,” he said. “I hiked around the fields, too.”

He met nearly a dozen other Special Olympics snowshoers at Lake Placid, including a group from Michigan.

“Oh, they could snowshoe,” Heraper recalled with a smile. “They were fast.”

Though he says he’s “not so fast” himself, Heraper was a medal winner at the state Special Olympics competition. That got him into a pool of athletes eligible for the World Games, and his name was drawn.

The United States delegation to the World Games, including athletes and coaches, numbers 130 people.

“We’re really pleased to have three people in that delegation,” said Mary T. MacConnell, executive director of Idaho Special Olympics.”This is a very exciting time for us.”

The other Idahoans headed to Toronto this morning are Jon Powers of Lewiston, an Alpine skier who will compete in the giant slalom and downhill, and Steve Goldman of Mountain Home, who will be one of 29 coaches accompanying the United States team.

The World Games will run from Saturday through Feb. 8, and will include competition in 11 sports.

“We’re going there for these athletes to have fun,” Goldman said. “It doesn’t matter if they win, it doesn’t matter if they lose.”

Special Olympics competitions are divided into seven-person heats, by ability. In each heat, the first three finishers win medals, and the next four get ribbons.

“But they’re all winners,” MacConnell said.

This is Heraper’s second World Games. He’s been involved in Special Olympics for nine years, and qualified as a runner for the summer games in 1991, which were held in Minnesota.

MacConnell remembered another race that year, in which a competitor named Bob came from the back of his heat in a walking event and neared the leader, who was slowing. But instead of passing him, Bob came up behind the leader and began encouraging him.

“He talked to this guy, said ‘don’t give up now,”’ MacConnell recalled. “Bob got the silver medal,” and let the other walker take the gold.

“So he was a winner of the race, and he was a winner for humanity. That’s what we like to see.”

Some Special Olympians are hard-charging competitors with a strong desire to win, she said. Others just enjoy the experience.

Powers, the Lewiston competitor, said during his turn before the Boise television cameras, “I’m pretty good, and I hope I win this gold medal.”

Heraper, wearing a bright-blue USA sweatshirt with his jeans and Sorrels, said only, “It’s a pleasure to be going to these Games.”

Asked afterward how he views his chances in the competition, Heraper said, “I might get a ribbon or something.”

“It’s really a lot of fun, just running a race,” he said, “win or lose.”

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