SPECIAL OLYMPIANS RETURN HOME
Monday, February 16th, 2009 -- 11:40 AM
A pair of Special Olympians from the local area are returning after a successful World Winter Games in Boise, Idaho.Mike Tyler of Granton and Edward Smith of Neillsville participated in Snowshoeing and Snowboarding, respectively.
Tyler picked up a pair of 4th place medals, and one silver for the 4 X 100 relay.
Smith got a bronze, silver and gold medal in the Giant Slalom.
"It was great fun," Smith said, "Meeting new people, and competing against others I've never competed against before. It was just great.
The course was a little different than the ones he?s practiced on, but was able to get the gold medal.
"(I was) a bit nervous, but I started getting very excited when I was flying through the course. I was a really steep drop, and then you had to start pulling to the left," Smith explains.
Smith said he made about a dozen new friends, who he?s keeping in contact with via e-mail.
Along with Tyler and Smith, Neillsville?s Steve Meurett coached cross-country skiing, Sue Jodarski coached Alpine Skiing and Dean Glaze served as an official in the cross-country skiing races.
"It was very exciting. It was such an incredible experience. The athletes made so many friends," Jodarski notes. This was her first time at the World Games.
While it?s obviously a ?feel good? story, the athletes take the competition seriously.
"That's really cool, too. It's not just, 'go out there and play around." says Meurett, who worked with Special Olympics for 20 years. "They take this very seriously. It's not about the medals, but they want to be on the top podium if they can."
With two athletes and three volunteers, Neillsville could be more involved, per capita, then any other community.
While they had an exciting time, Jodarski says everyone is excited to be back in Wisconsin.
[url=http://www.specialolympicswisconsin.org/sports_world_idaho.html]Wisconsin Athletes' Results[/url]
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