Special Olympians compete in winter games
North Idaho athletes with intellectual disabilities who are “going for the gold” wrapped up downhill skiing events last Saturday at Silver Mountain in the winter Special Olympics.
The one-day event featured 12 skiers from novice to advance ranging in age from 11 to 55 competing in the downhill and giant slalom races.
“I like going fast,” said Andrea Mousseau, 27, from the Silver Valley, who has been competing for five years and has won two gold medals in the downhill race.
“Ouch!” said Joanne Coast, as teammate April Carson adjusted her helmet. “I don’t want my helmet to pop off,” Mousseau said. “I may fall.”
Facing a lot of everyday challenges, these athletes are not afraid to put skinny sticks on their feet and zoom down a mountain.
It was Silver Mountain’s first time as official host to the event. High winds forced cancellation of last year’s races at the mountain, but last Saturday’s blue skies made for perfect skiing weather.
Special Olympics is designed for people with mental disabilities. It was started in 1968 by Eunice Kennedy Shriver to help her daughter and those like her realize their potential, develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage and experience joy and friendship. The first games were held at Chicago’s Soldier Field.
Idaho joined the Special Olympics games two years later, and by 1976, as winter sports became more popular, the winter games were added to the menu.
“All athletes look promising,” said Ryan Panitz, one of the Special Olympic coordinators from the organization’s Boise office. “They all have their own skills and their own abilities and you never know what they can compete against.”
“Andrea is our top skier,” said coach Fred Muhn. “Hopefully she will be competing in the International competition in Boise in 2009.”
Some 2,500 athletes from 85 countries are expected to compete in the Boise games, Panitz said.
“That’s the big event.”
But before the games begin all the athletes will scatter to various parts of the state to get use to the culture and climate. “So you could have Austria or athletes from Switzerland up here in the Silver Valley practicing on Silver Mountain,” Panitz explained. “This helps the athletes get acclimated.”
Not all athletes have been competing for years. Jashua Watts, 11, of Rathdrum, started skiing three weeks ago.
“I am pretty good,” he said. “I only crashed real bad once. I slid on my stomach like this,” as he raises his arms in the air demonstrating how he landed.
His dad, Steve, cheers and supports him and everyone else competing in Special Olympics events.
“I think my son is going to do good,” he said.
Muhn, who’s been coaching the Silver Valley alpine ski team for 18 years, would like to see more athletes competing and coaches volunteering. At one time St. Maries and Sandpoint both had teams.
At the end of the races, Mousseau had taken first place in her category and Watts finished second in his. All of the athletes who competed advance to the State competition, to be held in March.
“Everyone is a winner,” Muhn said.