Special Olympics Olds and District will be sending nine athletes to provincial and national competitions in July.From July 8 to 12, Mike Dougan and Aaron Johnson, a pair of 10-pin bowlers, will be headed to Vancouver for the Canada Special Olympics 2014 Summer Games.Five 5-pin bowlers, Steven Hamelin, Mark Mengersen, Dolten Cote, Kevin McBride and Darryl Siemens, will join them for the games, which will draw 2,000 athletes in 11 different sports.The Vancouver games will be the largest Summer Games for the Special Olympics ever.Later that month, 3,200 athletes, coaches, officials, parents and volunteers will gather in Airdrie for the 2014 Alberta Summer Games.The event will be held from July 24 to 27 and two local swimmers will be competing: Aaron Lewis and Misty Olsen.The nine athletes have been working hard to prepare for competition, said Karen Mengersen, chair of Special Olympics Olds and District.“It's a lot of commitment on the part of athletes and coaches,” she said.Since April, the bowlers have been playing six games a week. They have also filled out daily logbooks detailing their diet and exercise.The two swimmers have been training two hours a day, Mengersen said.She added that having fun kept the athletes on track with their training.“I basically try to make it an enjoyable time as opposed to a stressful time,” she said. “And they're all very excited. The guys who are going to Vancouver are quite excited about doing that because most of them have never been to Vancouver before.”She also hopes they will enjoy the experience, as most of the participants have never been on such a big stage.“Number one, I would hope that they would make new friends, expand their horizons and see all is possible in their sport,” she said. “I would just hope that they would be relaxed enough to be able to do their best.”[email protected]
