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 compete in the 24 summer sports.
The summer sports offered during games are athletics, basketball, bocce, bowling, cycling, equestrian, football (soccer), golf, gymnastics – artistic, gymnastics—rhythmic, open water swimming, powerlifting, sailing, swimming, table tennis, tennis, triathlon, and volleyball.
The event takes place from March 14 to 21 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. These are the first Special Olympics World Games in the Middle East/North Africa region.
The United States sent a 313-member delegation to represent the country. From the USA, there are 216 athletes, 63 coaches, and approximately 34 delegation members who support team operations.
Virginia alone sent seven athletes, one coach, and six staff members.
Here a list of the Virginia athletes and the sports they are competing in:
- Joey Roney; Swimming
- Josh Norris; Half marathon and 10,000m
- Chris Raupp; Tennis
- Grace Anne Braxton; Golf
- Karen Dickerson; Half marathon and the 10,000m
- Tori Martin; Swimming
- Jenny Mitchell; Open Water Swimming
The Special Olympics Virginia Facebook page said that Karen Dickerson won gold in the half-marathon on Saturday.
“My time was 1:50:12 which is slow but that's fine I'm just doing my best to represent the USA and doing it for hard long run,” Dickerson said.
There were other Virginia winners so far including, Jenny Mitchell earning gold in Open Water Swim, and Tori Martin winning silver in swimming.
Ron Manilla attended the games as a tennis coach as well as 6 Special Olympics Virginia staff members: Dave Pawlowski, medical team; Ellen Head, sports manager for gymnastics; Katie Botha, communications director for US delegation; Daniel Leake, technical delegate for volleyball; Nancy Morehouse, Unified Sports delegate; and David Thomason, who'll be assisting with Global Messengers.
The delegation also includes Special Olympics Unified Sports teams, where people with and without intellectual disabilities compete together, as teammates. These are the most inclusive Games to date.