Faces of the Games

The first time since I've been involved in Special Olympics, national media coverage finally discovered what we have known all along-how sport can change lives for people with disabilities and that they all have a story.  ESPN did an exceptional job covering the World Games and their writers sought out and featured our athletes narratives-so much so, that we as coaches experienced more of the public "getting it."  Not just saying they know what SO is about, but really understanding and accepting it.

Through countless interviews for TV coverage, newspaper stories, online pieces and social media, the athletes shared their lives with the world.  Smiles, high fives, hugs, ribbons and medals were their reward for hard work and dedication to their sport.  I think the joy in what they've accomplished can be reflected in their faces-pride in themselves and for everyone who has supported them.

I hope I've captured some of that-these are the athletes of our Athletics (track and field) team.

Nicole-Sprinter

Laurene-Race Walk

Keith-Sprinter

Linda-Sprinter

Kendal-Sprinter

Mike-Sprinter

Mark-Middle Distance

"D"-Middle Distance

Alex-1/2 Marathon

Ashley-Distance

Destiny-Sprinter

Chauncy-Sprinter

Ben-Sprinter

Casey-Pentathlete

Thomas-Sprinter

Karen-1/2 Marathon

Brittany- Sprinter

Olivia- Sprinter

Briana- Sprinter

Josh- Distance

Chuck-Jav

Jose-Jav

Brandon-Sprinter

Robert-Throws

Shakila-Sprinter

Alberta- LJ

Gillian-Middle Distance

Laura-Middle Distance

Theo-Sprinter

Hayden-Race Walk

Jordan-RaceWalk

Dillon-Middle Distance

Steve-Head Coach

Last Day on the Track.

We spend so much time thinking ahead to things, dates and times we look forward to, but there is always a danger of wishing ones life away I guess. For those of us on the Special Olympics USA athletics team, these World Games have been something we' ve prepared for and Loki g forward to.  Pre-camp seems like a distant memory now (last week at UC Riverside) and even this week of competition at USC has been a blur. It's now the last day on the track..

I guess it's flown by for me, as head coach, just because we seemed to have one crisis after another in the first few days- some on track others away from it.  World Games are never easy, up early, all day going seemingly mach speed and emotions all over the place.  At the end of the day, there is more work to dive into so the athletes and coaches know the following days schedule. And it starts again.

So we're here, big day ahead and the dorms are just now waking up.  The half marathon will be held in Long Beach and I'm sending our distance coach and sports manager there to accompany the two USA runners.  The track will be full tilt boogie, with SO USA brandishing 7 relay teams. We should make a good showing.

The athletes all clapped and cheered at the end of last nights team meeting- I'd gone thru the schedule and the awards and performances from the day.  We talked about the relays, what we would practice in the morning and that by 5:30pm, the final race will be run. They seemed fired up.  My thought was I don't think they will have the same emotion when they leave the track late today.  Most will never have this opportunity again nor see their teammates again.  Standing on the podium later and having medals placed over their heads may cloud that some, as it should, but sooner or later, it'll hit them.  The coaches will realize it first.

We still have a lot on our team plate, competition , closing ceremonies, a team tour of LA, massive packing and several days of travel.  We'll have feelings all,over the place, but for now, as the athletes are waking, pulling on their USA uniforms, and rubbing sleep from their eyes,  we have a job today, put out the very best we can in front of the world on the track.

Sometimes it IS about Winning On

Marty from ESPN was on the verge, wetness was creeping up into his eyes, but being the professional sportscaster he is, somehow managed to dam them up.  he'd taken a special liking to Olivia.  Hearing here story of being diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer, fighting through chemo and continuing her training just to be at the World Games, had won his heart.  He' followed her successes and challenges From opening ceremonies through this chapter today.

A couple nights ago Olivia, who lives and trains outside Milwaukee, had told us she just didn't want another round of chemo, it hurt, it made her sick and so tired.  In her hand was a small clump of hair, which had started to fall out again.  It was just too hard.  It was tough to her her talk like that. Damn.

She is Wisconsin's fastest female Special Olympic sprinter.  Last fall I was amazed at her running form, something difficult to teach but had that came natural to her.  She'd run sub :16 second 100s then. Here, now, at the World Games, she was having a tough time keeping her times below :19.  And she knew it.  Olivia expressed her tired disappointment in knowing girls she should beat, now are finishing much further ahead.

In Special Olympics, athletes compete in a divisioning round first, where they get a pre-lim time and before finals, are seeded into groups of like ability athletes.  Olivia would be in a slower division than usual.  Cancer had taken her speed.  Even warm ups for her races were a huge effort for her and for us that have know her, to watch.  She kept at it however.

The  track was hugely busy Thursday, a lot of our athletes had events and the afternoon session was capped by the 100 meter dash females.  Cream of the crop sprinters.  SO USA has a big field of girls in that event- a lot to get warmed up, off to staging, race and then a long wait for awards.  Olivia would race later in the day.

I try to help get athletes ready for events when I can. Other coaches have sprint groups, distance runners or throwers they regularly prepare here- they are great in what they do and I just jump in when needed.  Sometimes as head coach, I'm running around crazy putting out fires for this and that, but inside I'm still a track coach and I wanna work with athletes .  Olivia and the rest of the sprinters were warming up in the field behind the stadium.  Of all the girls running the drills, she looked weakest. I think all of us were worried in our minds and hearts about how she would do on the track.

The girls I had to warmup were now in the staging area. Olivia already had a seat and was waiting her turn to run.  The track complex is big and I finally made my way around to the grandstand to catch a few of the heats of runners.  We had a lot, so I Just wanted to hopefully see a few rounds.

Almost all of our team and coaches were in attendance cheering on their teammates. The crowd was loud.  A new heat was getting set at the far end of the track for their start- I could see a blue uniform of SO USA on the starting line, Breana maybe?  Gun is up, set, bang!

The fastest runner is always in the middle of the field, slower ones on the outside.  From the gun, a girl way outside blasted out of the start, my first thought was she is too fast to be in this division. Wait-it's Olivia! I hadn't realized she was in this heat, and by mid point the race was over, she'd destroyed the field. A gold medal would be hung from her neck. The score board lit up with :16.7, a time she hadn't been close to since before chemo. The crowd who knew her story went crazy, tears flowed.

The night before, Olivia told her coach she was going to win. She was going to get the gold for all those women who have breast cancer. She did.

On this day, it was about winning.

Keith

It's rare that a selected World Games athlete is replaced on a team, but unfortunately we had that happen earlier this year.  What I felt would be our star runner on the team turned out to not have the commitment to achieve his potential, or be a good example of what a SO athlete is.  Our coaching staff was terribly disappointed.  Missteps along the way and a lack of training effort finally made the decision to cut him loose my only choice.

SO USA does have in place alternates who can come in and replace someone on the team.  At the time, we quickly found another athlete from the same state, who could step in-an unknown commodity perhaps, but from all accounts, he could be a good fit. Keith is a sprinter. Short fast bursts of speed his specialty.  That would be a good fit, but our quota spot also called for a 400 runner in a relay, not exactly something he excelled at.  We'd make it work.

Fast forward to pre-camp last week.  My first impression was he really didn't seem to have the drive to be successful in the upcoming games.  A bit lack lackadaisical at first and a lot of reminders from all of the coaches during practices.  There was, however, a glimmer of something special in there.  Days 2 and 3 of precamp gradually saw Keith improve in both his performance and attitude.  Just maybe he would surprise us.

Jumping ahead to this day.  Day one of finals. During his prelim races earlier in the week, he showed speed...just enough to win every heat he entered. Kind of a catch-me-if-you-can sort of thing. Okay, so this guy does have the goods.  Even in his 400 leg of the relay, he put up a time that we guessed we could run.

Keith stood proud as a peacock on the podium. All other runners in his division surrounding the Arkansaw runner on both sides.  He'd earned gold.  That natural speed and desire to win, played out well in his race.

 For a painfully shy young man, he said all he needed on the track in front of screaming spectators and his teammates.  Wow, just wow.

No News is Good News?

The coffee shop is maybe just three blocks away- on the edge of not the best part of LA.  USC starts here and although the campus is beautiful and well manicured, these boarder neighborhoods are not.  the cops warned to not venture far here. Coffee calls however,and it's necessary to venture out before the team is up and moving.

A small hispanic man is behind a glass window munching on a donut while making its replacement. I find a styrofoam cup, fill it and take satisfaction that it costs half of what Starbucks does across the street.  The TV blares in the corner above the security camera.....something about Tom Brady destroying his cell phone.  Wonder what's up with that? Well, I don't give it a lot of thought I guess.  There was something about a Disney roller coaster malfunction and an earthquake near Anchorage.  Exiting the building I realized I know nothing about what's going on "out there."  We don't see news, or at least I'm out of the loop, and just too busy with my own little dramas to care.  It's an insulation of sorts being here and almost a releif.   No Scott Walker BS, no worries of what my state is doing to my state, no updates to some Middle East crisis.

It's not bad having no news.   I think I'll just appreciate this little break from what's out there that I don't know about.

Scary Stuff

There are  a lot of challenges for a Special Olympics World Game coach, but none compare to having a missing athlete.  It's the one thing we as coaches are insanely anxious about.  Yes, we're all like mother hens when it comes to our athletes.  We are constantly counting heads, shuffling them together, with an ever watchful eye on them.    Sometimes however, all that vigilance still isn't enough.

I arrived back to the dorm from a long day at the track and a foolish head coaches meeting-do World Games coaches really need a tutorial in long jump scratches? Sheeeesh.  We'd had an athlete go down with an injury after her race, so there was concern over how she was doing-plus, they had transportation problems getting her back.  All that changed in an instant when I found out an athlete had skipped going to her room, while coaches moved the hurt athlete up an elevator.  Red flags go out immediately  and we started sweeping the labyrinth of nooks, crannies and stairwells of the 3 story dorm complex.  Coaches with athletes on campus were asked back to help look.  I did multiple sweeps of floors and the onsite security helped.

My cell binged a message-she was found. Another coach located her hiding place and a collective sigh of relief was felt by all of us.  We're not in the best neighborhood of LA, so during the search I feared she may have slipped past someone.  She's not a runner, but rather was upset about something and made a poor choice.  She's tucked away sleeping now, but we'll remain concerned as the days move forward with more eyes on her at all times.  World Games can be trying to athletes-it's tiring, stressful and they are away from home.  Sometimes parent visits make matters worse, but usually this all improves and it ends up being a great experience for everyone.  That may be our biggest challenge.

Protests

I swear I don't ask for this.  What was planned on being a simple (yet unbelievably hectic) day at the track changed with the very first shot of the starting pistol.

Usually we have our ASM (Asst. sports manager) hold down the fort in the stadium where the SO USA team has our home base.  Athletes can rest there, watch competition, and get ready for the next event. Our day was crazy, so I took over that duty-or so I thought.  The 10,000 meter race is the second longest and we had 3 athletes running right away in the coolness of the morning (cool for California).  25 laps on a track-ouch, usually 10ks are run on the road.  Our 2 coaches were diligent in count laps and taking splits.  About midway, our runners looked good-Karen in 2nd, and Alex and Josh sitting in at 2nd and 3rd place in their divisions.  Josh seemingly had difficulty with the warming day and pulled off the the track after making a good pass on a Mexican runner.  Alex followed suit. Those placings remained for the remainder of the race until......officials pulled off the Mexican runner one lap early!  Now results show Alex in 2nd!

Red flag for me-as head coach I need to file a protest within 1/2 hr of results being posted.  Leaving my post at camp, I ran to the sports desk to fill out the appropriate paperwork.  I wasn't the first coach there.  6 Protests from different countries were files-not  just on our incident, but several others in including Canada, who had their athlete pulled 4 laps too early!  No one waited for results to be posted (which never were this day).

My description of the race was penned quickly on the official form and it was slipped into a stack of paper for all other coaches-I felt my argument had a chance. Nope. Denied. A hand written reply stated that our runner and the Mexican did the same number of laps and results would stand.

Crap.  It's hard to rectify anything after that point.  Canada's was denied as well.  They would appeal and encouraged me to do the same.  I do.  At this point a jury of appeals should be convened and the facts looked at.  Nothing changed, awards were handed out (and to add insult to injury, Alex was redivisioned and ended up 4th!  So what should have been a gold medal was now a 4th place ribbon.  Try explaining this who scenario to the parents.  You can't.

These things happen and it's the most frustrating because it's not far to the athlete who has worked so hard to be here and do their best.  It's not over-as I sit here in the dark, I'll be emailing the jury, which we believe was never brought together to look at our appeals.  Stay tuned.

Eventually I did resume my post at our "camp" but it seemed like I didn't get to watch many races-always running around putting out little fires it seemed.  My assistant coaches are the best and they cover each other so well.  Athletes are awesome and remain the "go-with-the-flow" attitude.  It's much appreciated.

I anticipated the daily head coaches meeting may be a bit fiery with all that happened, but it really wasn't.  There was a huge problem with athletes staying in their lanes for the 100 meter dash because of difficult track markings, but no matter the questions for the head coaches (yes, including that American coach-me) our logical arguments to fix the situation (for the sake of the athletes) was ignored.  The HC meetings are really a joke-they turn into loud uninformative wastes of time.  I leave it feeling disappointed.

Although it was a super long day, and I'd miss a shower after the long day and just meet the team for dinner, it went well in the end.  Lot's of our athletes had  great performances, and although not everything was fair, I tried not to let it sour the first full day of competition.

For me, after a semi-cold diner at the dining hall with the team, it was rush back, do 2 loads of laundry, clean up and conduct a meeting with the athletes and later one detailing our next day with the coaching staff.  Long day, but we got it done.

Today starts easier-fewer of our team start the day, but it'll be full bore later with 100s and 200s....and hopefully my pen will stay tucked away from any official paperwork.