MOUNT VERNON – The Knox County Special Olympics team is in Columbus this weekend to compete in the 2018 Special Olympics of Ohio State Summer Games.
The athletes are competing in a wide variety of events, everything from track and field events to the softball throw. Knox County will be represented by over 45 athletes this year, competing in a field of over 3,000.
This weekend marks the final test of the season for Ohio’s Special Olympic athletes.
“The athletes get very excited, and this is their big culmination of the whole season that we do. They work very hard,” Knox County coach Diana Shaffer said. “We’ve been practicing since April and we start with two practices a week, then we go down to one practice a week. But they work really hard so they get so excited about the state tournaments.”
But the event is about much more than athletic competition. Throughout the weekend, all athletes are encouraged to participate in movie showings, nighttime dances and daily meals together.
“I think that the athletes just enjoy each other,” she said. “And they all get a ribbon or a medal, so of course they all like the medals no matter what. But they just enjoy being with each other and the experience. We just like to encourage them to do the best they can and to just have a good time.”
On Friday morning, five Knox County athletes joined Shaffer in the parking lot of the Knox County License Bureau on N. Sandusky Street. Dressed in red caps and neon yellow shirts, both with ‘Knox County’ emblazoned proudly on the front, they shook the hands of local law enforcement officials.
Members of the Knox County Sheriff’s Office, the Ohio State Highway Patrol and the Mount Vernon Police Department gathered to meet the team and wish them well before they headed off to Columbus. They also gathered to perform an annual tradition before the team leaves, called the ‘Law Enforcement Torch Run.’
Led by sheriff David Shaffer (husband of Diana), these law enforcement officials ran nearly three miles through the streets of Mount Vernon with the Olympic torch, known as the ‘Flame of Hope.’
The torch had started in Northeast Ohio on Monday and had made its way down to Knox County by Friday, as law enforcement officials in each county ceremoniously ran the torch through their county in an effort to bring it to Ohio State’s Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium for Friday night’s opening ceremonies.
The torch run is meant to raise support and awareness for each county’s team.
In Knox County, it seems as if awareness of the Special Olympics program has increased substantially in recent years.
When Shaffer began volunteering eight years ago, there were only 12 athletes on the roster. Since then, Shaffer believes that strong parental involvement and head coach Linda Kerr’s leadership have taken the program to new heights.
“The program just keeps growing and growing and growing,” Shaffer said. “It’s getting pretty big.”
To view the full schedule of this weekend’s events, click here.
