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Grades 4-6

Going for Gold

Chandler Schaak

From February 7 to 13, more than 2,000 athletes with intellectual disabilities competed in the 2009 Special Olympics World Winter Games, in Idaho.

"Let me win, but if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt." More than 2,000 athletes from 95 countries took that oath at the opening ceremony of the 2009 Special Olympics World Winter Games. They competed in seven sports, including skiing, skating and floor hockey.

In 1968, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the sister of President John F. Kennedy, started the Special Olympics. She hoped to encourage people with intellectual disabilities to become fit while experiencing the joy of sports. Today, there are Special Olympics programs in 180 countries. More than 2.8 million athletes participate in these programs.

In some Special Olympics events, athletes with and without intellectual disabilities compete together on unified teams. There were unified pairs figure skaters and floor hockey teams.

With 82 teams, floor hockey had more competitors than any other event. The team from the Dominican Republic demonstrated real Olympic spirit. The team could only afford to send 10 of its 20 players to the U.S. "The players said we all go or none of us go," manager Pedro Moises Gomez told TFK. So they raised donations and borrowed money to keep the team together. They won a bronze medal.

Amanda Coviello, 21, won the gold medal in the super-G, a downhill skiing event. "Doctors told us Amanda would never have any motor skills and would have a hard time with language," says Sue Coviello, Amanda's mom. "Now she is a gold medalist and even learned Russian so that she could speak with her Russian competitors." What was Amanda's winning strategy? "My coach told me to go fast, and I did," she says.

At the closing ceremony, the Olympic flame was extinguished. But the work of the Special Olympics athletes and volunteers continues.

Next: Help Is On the Way