Cory Bilicko
Managing Editor
The medals are polished and ready to be awarded to those among the 1,100 local athletes who earn gold, silver or bronze in aquatics, track & field, basketball, bocce, golf and gymnastics in next month’s Summer Games of Special Olympics Southern California (SOSC) in Long Beach.
Sarah Kovacs competes in a track-and-field event in a recent Special Olympics Southern California.
The events will start Saturday with the torch-lighting opening ceremony at 9:30am, followed by competitions, award ceremonies and special athlete educational activities throughout the weekend.
SOSC will also highlight two of its signature programs, Healthy Athletes and Young Athletes, providing free health screenings and teaching the importance of sporting activities for mental development and physical growth to the youngest members of the Special Olympics community.
Leaders from SOSC and Cal State Long Beach will also formally announce that the partnership between the two entities will continue, as the university has extended its agreement to host Summer Games through 2017.
“We are tremendously grateful to the university and its generosity,” said Bill Shumard, CEO and president of SOSC. “From use of campus facilities for matches, their residence halls which house our athletes, to the welcoming staff, we are thrilled that Summer Games will continue at Cal State Long Beach.”
The Summer Games are the first of two Southern California championships each year, and this year’s Games serve as a prelude to the Special Olympics 2015 World Summer Games in Los Angeles July 25 through Aug. 2. It will be the first Special Olympics World Summer Games conducted in the United States in 16 years. Organizers anticipate the World Summer Games will bring half a million people to the greater Los Angeles area, with more than 7,000 Special Olympic athletes participating from 170 nations. There will be 15 athletes competing in the Summer Games who will then compete in the World Games.
“She also saw that many children with intellectual disabilities didn’t even have a place to play. She decided to take action,” according to the Special Olympics website. “Soon, her vision began to take shape, as she held a summer day camp for young people with intellectual disabilities in her own back yard. The goal was to learn what these children could do in sports and other activities— and not dwell on what they could not do.”
Throughout the ’60s, Kennedy-Shriver was the driving force behind President Kennedy’s White House panel on people with intellectual disabilities and as the director of the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation, and her vision for justice ultimately transformed into the Special Olympics movement.
After attending the first Special Olympics competition in Chicago in 1968, Olympic decathlon gold medalist Rafer Johnson, along with a small group of volunteers, founded California Special Olympics the following year by organizing a competition at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for 900 individuals with intellectual disabilites.
“Seeing the determination on their faces is inspiring,” Shumard said. “Our athletes are excited to share the benefits of the many hours they have spent practicing and improving their skills, while building lasting relationships with coaches and teammates. It’s truly remarkable to watch the athletes live the oath of Special Olympics, ‘If I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt.’ That’s what Special Olympics is all about.”
Witnessing that determination first-hand will be two Bixby Knolls community members: Blair Cohn, executive director of the Bixby Knolls Business Improvement Association; and Andrea Testa, realtor and former owner of FreeSpirit Yoga studio.
Cohn, who helps to organize ongoing local bike events, will serve as competition manager for cycling in this year’s Summer Games. Having worked with Spectrum Sports Management, who is overseeing all the Summer Games competitions, on numerous other events, Cohn had already made a name for himself in the field. Cohn said he helped Spectrum Sports identify cycling routes and figure out the logistics of those options.
“We’re going to use Shoreline Drive from Aquarium Way, and it’s a loop course,” Cohn said. “It goes out towards the freeway, but it’s a big U-turn that swings back and returns you back on Shoreline to Aquarium Way. And we’re going to use the grass on the side of the Aquarium as the staging area.”
Cohn said the loop is about 1.3 miles total and there will be multiple loops used for the different events, based on ability levels of the athletes.
“The shortest course is just 500 meters,” Cohn said. “The finish line will always stay the same. We’ll mark different starting lines based on the distance.”
He said the Special Olympics Summer Games are “much more formal” than some of the other events he has helped to coordinate.
“I work with the technical delegate for cycling. He’s coming from the Netherlands,” Cohn said. “So we are on the top of the structure to make sure that the whole venue is set up and ready to go. What that means is there are people in other positions that are in charge of… the actual course itself— marking it— working the start line, to stocking the athlete lounge with food and drinks. We oversee to make sure the caterer’s there to set up lunch when it’s supposed to be there and the snacks are out when they’re supposed to be there, to making sure the equipment’s in place.”
Cohn said he’s looking forward to the Games because “you can’t help but be moved by it.”
Testa said she is “so excited” to volunteer for the Games after finding out about that opportunity during the Rose Parade and signing up that day.
“I’ve been assigned as bus greeter at Marine Stadium with the Transportation Team,” Testa said. “I can’t wait to cheer them all on! I guess I feel so passionate about this event for a few reasons: A— I’ve always wanted to attend an Olympics; B— I wanted to be in the Olympics as a participant for sprinting in track/field; and C— I just love people and am stoked that folks with a disability get an opportunity to participate in an Olympics. I’m going to be crying the whole time. I can’t wait.”
For more information and a complete schedule of events, visit sosc.org/summergames .
