Special Olympics pioneer Marty Sheets dies at age 62

Special Olympics pioneer Marty Sheets died Thursday at the Greensboro, North Carolina, home he shared with his parents. He was 62. Sheets was born with Down syndrome. He won seven medals at six Special Olympics World Games, starting with the inaugural games in Chicago in 1968. His total medal count over 42 years in local, state, national and world competitions exceeded 250. He is featured in a portrait of Special Olympics founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver that hangs in the National Gallery of Art in Washington. Sheets is the only Special Olympian in the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame. – Associated Press