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RICHMOND, Va. – Seven athletes and a coach from Virginia traveled to Abu Dhabi for the 2019 Special Olympics World Games.
More than 7,000 Special Olympics athletes from 195 countries will participate in the 24 summer sports.
The summer sports offered during the games are athletics, basketball, petanque, bowling, cycling, horse riding, football, golf, artistic gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics, swimming in open water, powerlifting, swimming, table tennis, tennis, triathlon. and volleyball.
The event will take place from March 14th to 21st in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. These are the first Special Olympics World Games in the Middle East and North Africa.
The United States sent a delegation of 313 members representing the country. In the United States, there are 216 athletes, 63 coaches and about 34 delegation members who support the team's operations.
Virginia alone sent seven athletes, a coach and six staff members.
Here is a list of the athletes from Virginia and the sports in which they participate:
- Joey Roney; To swim
- Josh Norris; Half marathon and 10,000m
- Chris Raupp; Tennis
- Grace Anne Braxton; Golf
- Karen Dickerson; Half marathon and the 10,000m
- Tori Martin; To swim
- Jenny Mitchell; Open water swimming
The Special Olympics Virginia Facebook page announced that Karen Dickerson won the gold medal at Saturday's half marathon.
"My time was 1:50:12, which is slow, but it's okay, I'm doing my best to represent the United States and do it for the long term," Dickerson said.
Until now, there were other winners in Virginia, including Jenny Mitchell who won gold at Open Water Swim and Tori Martin who won silver in swimming.
Ron Manilla attended the games as a tennis coach and welcomed six Special Olympics Virginia staff members: Dave Pawlowski, medical team; Ellen Head, Head of Sports for Gymnastics; Katie Botha, director of communications for the US delegation; Daniel Leake, technical delegate for volleyball; Nancy Morehouse, Unified Sports Delegate; and David Thomason, who will attend Global Messengers.
The delegation also includes Special Olympics unified sports teams, where people with and without intellectual disabilities compete as teammates. These are the most inclusive games to date.
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