At one point during their trip to the Special Olympics’ Summer Games, one St. Paul athlete turned to the others and said something along the lines of, “I’m living my life’s dream,” recalled the chair for St. Paul Special Olympics.
For Anna Scheffelmiar, seeing the athletes’ pride, the joy in competing and the fanfare with which all the athletes came in to the Games, like a mini-Olympics, were among the moments why she continues to volunteer with the group.
“That’s what makes it worth it,” she said, recalling watching the joy of a Calgary athlete after finding out she had won. “I had tears in my eyes watching her, because she was so pumped.”
Alberta’s Special Olympics’ Summer Games took place from July 7 to 9 in Medicine Hat. To qualify, local athletes had to go to three qualifying tournaments hosted by affiliates. Greg Demchuk and Hector Jean qualified to compete for the Summer Games in golf, and Calvin Bodnar, Cyndal Christensen, Charlotte Demchuk, Michael Mayo, and Judy Perepelacta all qualified to compete in bowling.
It was a little nerve-wracking for the athletes to begin with, said bowling coach Laura Langevin, but after the first day, the nerves settled and the athletes buckled down to compete to their best ability.
“It was a very tough competition - you have to beat your average every time. That’s what they were trying to do, and most of them did.”
“Us being such a small affiliate and not having the resources the bigger affiliates have, we did very, very well. We did awesome,” added Scheffelmiar.
By the end of the weekend, each of the St. Paul athletes would medal. Demchuk won a silver in men’s golf, division 1, while Jean won a bronze in men’s golf, division 2. Bodnar brought home a gold medal in the men’s single category, division 7, while the team of Bodnar, Christensen, Demchuk, Mayo and Perepelacta also won a silver in team bowling in Division 7.
The podium finishes came as a welcome surprise to the golfers, and to their coaches.
“I had high expectations for certain athletes, but I didn’t expect everyone to come home with a medal,” said Scheffelmiar, head coach for golf.
“I’m really proud of them because they did very excellent,” said Langevin.
“It was very good, the competition,” said Jean, of golf, noting that only nine strokes separated the top two athletes from the bottom two athletes.
With bowling, the athletes also got a few pleasant surprises, particularly when Mayo bowled a 304 in one game, with the group saying, “everyone was kind of shocked when he did that,” and Demchuk saying, “Michael can bowl when wants to.”
Another highlight was seeing Olympic figure skater Jaime Sale and Craig Simspon, a former Edmonton Oilers player, as well as meeting the competitors from other teams, said the athletes.
Nearly 1,200 athletes attended the games from across Alberta. Each affiliate’s athletes came in to the games with their home towns and cities announced, just as athletes do at the world Olympics. Athletes from major centres like Edmonton and Calgary got thunderous applause and cheers, while St. Paul also got cheers, despite being a smaller group.
“We were like Zimbabwe, with our little flag,” chuckled Scheffelmiar, adding, “It was a great experience.”
For both coaches, it was their first time at the games, and Langevin also said it was an incredible experience, to see the camaraderie, the respect between all the organizers and athletes, and how everyone exchanged high fives and good spirits through the competition.
“This is totally, totally different than anything else, the way they treated us, the way they bussed us - right to a tee, it was very good,” said Langevin.
But athletes agreed on one thing - the best bit of the weekend, spent in hot 35-degree weather and nights spent on uncomfortable cots, was coming home to St. Paul. Next up for the athletes will be finding out who amongst them may travel to nationals, with bowling to be held in Nova Scotia, and golfing to be held in Prince Edward Island, in the summer of
2018.
