Shilts To Compete At Special Olympics Unified Snowboarding Races At X-Games
Sunday, January 4th, 2015 -- 1:48 PM
Wisconsin's own Daina Shilts, of Neillsville, was chosen to participate in Special Olympics Unified Snowboarding Races as part of this year's X Games in Aspen, Colorado on Thursday, January 22.Dana is one of only 10 Special Olympics athletes to be chosen to participate. She said that she couldn't breathe when she read the letter. She said she's counting down the days until she will snowboard in Colorado for my first time.
Shilts will compete in a Special Olympics Unified Snowboarding dual giant slalom competition on a team with an X Games athlete on Buttermilk Mountain. The event combine athletes ? with and without intellectual disabilities ? as teammates to showcase the power of Special Olympics' Unified Sports?, which helps unite communities and foster an environment of acceptance and inclusion.
Shilts has seven years of snowboarding experience and has been involved in Special Olympics for 17 years, participating in a variety of sports. Shilts competed in snowboarding at the 2013 Special Olympics Winter World Games in South Korea where she brought home one gold and two silver medals.
Daina also had the amazing opportunity to partner with her role model, Hannah Teter, an Olympic Snowboard SuperPipe gold medalist in the Unified Sports Races during the World Games. Teter is also one of the athletes competing in the X Games.
The X Games will be held January 22-25. This is the 14th event the X Games has held in Aspen Snowmass, Colorado; the Special Olympics Unified Snowboarding races were first held last year.
This winter action sports and youth lifestyle festival in Buttermilk Mountain will include an expanded and fully-medaled adaptive sport lineup. The return of Snowmobile HillCross and Speed & Style will showcase the talents of more than 200 world-class athletes from around the globe.
X Games Aspen 2015 ? with live coverage on ESPN and ABC and an extensive array of content across digital platforms ? is also presenting on Thursday, Jan. 22. ESPN and ABC will televise a combined 16 hours of live X Games Aspen 2015 competition.
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