Local athletes accomplish amazing victories at Special Olympics in Calgary

The local athletes that went out to Calgary to compete in the Special Olympics are back home with medals of bronze, silver, and gold displayed around their necks. 

There were six local competitors, all of which came back with medals. 

Cathy Wiebe with the Special Olympics, says this was an incredible experience for the athletes. 

“It was an amazing opportunity. I think that it’s something they're going to talk about forever.” 

William Middleton got gold in the 100m snowshoe, silver in the relay, and bronze in the 200m. 

He says his time in Calgary was a lot of fun. 

“It was good, cold as usual. It was really good, the best week of my life.” 

Jacqueline Reimer won bronze in snowshoeing. 

“It was fun and exciting. It was an adventure for me.” 

Terry Lynn Johnson competed in speed skating for the first time. 

“I've been there 28 years ago for cross-country skiing in 1996.” 

He came back home from Calgary with silver in the 333m speed skating, and bronze in the 777m speed skating. 

Johnson also won gold in the 1000m and 500m races. 

Caleb Friesen shares what he competed in at the Special Olympics. 

“I competed in the 200 and 100 hundred meters snowshoeing and the 4x100 relay and I got two silver and one gold.” 

He says it was quite challenging as it was very cold in Calgary at the time and there was a lot of snow. 

“It was harder because of the cold, but we got through. I just basically clear my mind and just race.” 

Alex Coop earned silver in five-pin bowling. 

Wiebe says that these athletes were able to compete thanks to the generosity of the community.

“I'm always so excited when we have the charity BBQ because the community comes out and they're so behind us, and that was a large portion of the money that got us out to Calgary.” 

She says it’s great to see how well the Special Olympians did in Calgary. 

“I'd like to say thank you again to everybody for what they did for us, and as you can hear, these guys did amazing. I was just standing here looking at them and realized every one of them has a medal.” 

 

With files from Corny Rempel