Special Olympians arrived at Whitefish Mountain Resort Sunday for the 22nd annual State Winter Games, which wrapped up today.
The crowd of spectators is deafening as racers in the 50-meter snowshoeing event sprint up the slight incline of the Bunny Hill. Half of the slope has been transformed into a track, with lanes lined in blue dye on the soft white snow.
A total of 341 Special Olympic athletes are competing this year in varied distances of snowshoeing and cross country skiing, and on three courses for downhill skiing and snowboarding.
Sheri Booi of Missoula raced the 100 and 500 meter cross country ski course:
"It was really fun but challenging. It was nice to be able to root other people on."
Booi has been racing since she was 8 — she's now 47.
"Get to meet new friends, meet new people, and I like it because I can compete like everybody else," Booi says.
Special Olympics Montana, the non-profit that organizes the Winter Games, helps athletes train year-round, and provides health-related programming for people with intellectual disabilities. Several hundred people turned out to cheer athletes on and help run the event.
Josh Anderson is fresh off the podium. He sports a silver medal over his racing bib.
"It was a fast course," Anderson says.
This year he placed second in the giant slalom and fourth in slalom, but two years ago, he was Athlete of The Year:
"It was quite an honor. totally unexpected. Ha!"
Anderson has competed in the winter games for 16 years. He says in that time, he's learned to ski runs he never dreamed he'd hit.
"Now it's boop boop boop! Two minutes and I'm down and on the lift again," says Anderson.
But it's not just skiing fast. Anderson says the Special Olympics helped him break barriers on and off the course:
"I like how it really brings people with and without intellectual disabilities together, and allows athletes with intellectual disabilities to break boundaries."
Special Olympics Montana's State Summer Games will be held in Missoula this coming May.
