Andrew Smilley is front and center for the Special Olympics
Andrew Smilley made waves in Cayman again this weekend when he appeared not just on the front page, but AS the front page of the Weekend Observer. Smilley was recognized for his accomplishments on the world stage as one of Cayman's most decorated athletes. Below is the article in full, as printed...
Every Saturday morning, a group of volunteers and adults with intellectual disabilities meet at the Cayman International School pool. For an hour or so, each of them works on his or her swimming skills. Some need life jackets, some use foam noodles for support, others swim a variety of strokes, unaided. There are individuals in their teens and adults in their 40s and 50s.
This is the Special Olympics aquatics training. It’s open to all members of the community with intellectual disabilities, regardless of athletic aptitude.
Special Olympics Cayman Islands provides year-round sports training in aquatics, basketball and bocce to people with intellectual disabilities. The minimum age is eight, but there is no upper age limit and no criteria for physical ability.
Some 85 athletes are involved in the programme, representing a full range of intellectual and physical disabilities, from the likes of Andrew Smilley, who is in an elite category and competes in regular, mainstream swimming events, to individuals in wheelchairs or with very limited mobility.
The coaches work with each athlete to identify and work toward their individual goals.
“Not everyone is going to progress at the same pace and not everyone is starting from the same place, but the goal is always improvement,” says Toni Johnson, a board member and volunteer coach since 1996.
The Motor Adaptive Training Programme caters to those with the severest physical disabilities. “If rolling a ball along the ground is as much as they can do,” she says, “then that’s what we’re going to help them to do.”
“As long as they enjoy it, they can get involved in Special Olympics,” says Penny McDowall, Aquatics and Sports director of SOCI. “The whole idea is to get them out, competing with their peers.”
Through regular sports training, these athletes build strength, coordination and stamina. They also gain a great deal of confidence.
“It’s an amazing thing to see them progress and be able to do things no one thought they could do - that even they never thought they could do,” says Johnson.
Special Olympics is about what the athletes can do, not what they can’t do.
“I have athletes who can’t read and can’t write, but they can run or they can play bocce,” says McDowall. “It’s another avenue for them to shine.”
Not all Special Olympics athletes have the competitive drive, says McDowall, but when they do, they can train to compete in the annual national games, invitational regional games and even the world games, held every four years.
Thousands of Special Olympics athletes attend the world games and organisers ensure it’s a level playing field by creating various divisions within each sporting discipline, so that athletes are competing against peers of a similar ability.
The Cayman Islands has been proud to send some of its athletes to compete in the world summer games since 1991, and even prouder to welcome them home with an array of medals.
Kanza Bodden is one of those athletes.
When Kanza was born, her mother, Nancy Bodden, questioned whether Cayman was going to be the best place for her to grow up.
In September this year Kanza was one of two athletes to represent the Cayman Islands in the Special Olympics World Aquatics Invitational in Puerto Rico. Her name and face are now well known in Cayman and she receives cheers and congratulations from the public whenever she wears her medals.
“If she had been living in the States or in some other country, that wouldn’t have happened,” her mother now realises. “She would have just been lost in the crowd.”
Regular swimming has been physically important for Kanza. People with Down’s Syndrome have low muscle tone and are often prone to gaining weight, explains Kanza’s mother. They also tend to have hyper mobile joints. Regular swimming training has helped Kanza keep excess weight off and has strengthened the muscles, tendons and ligaments in her hips, helping her to keep her legs better aligned.
Regular training has also resulted in steady improvement for Kanza. Two years ago she represented Cayman in the regional games in Puerto Rico and brought home a silver medal for her 25 metre backstroke. The next year she went to the world games in Athens and swam in the 50 metre freestyle and backstroke, gaining two more medals. This year she was swimming 100 metres backstroke and freestyle, again winning medals in both.
McDowall’s goal for Kanza is to compete in an individual medley (all four strokes) at the next world games in 2015. “We’ve got two and a half years to do that. By hook or by crook I will get there with her,” she says.
Andrew Smilley is on course to also make Cayman proud at the 2015 world games. Now 22, Smilley started swimming when he was eight. It quickly became apparent that he was a gifted swimmer. McDowall took him as far as she could within Special Olympics, but because his swimming is on a par with mainstream, regular swimmers, he now trains with the Stingray Swim Club.
“I actually worked with a couple of Special Olympics kids back in the US, but they were low functioning swimmers,” Smilley’s coach, Andy Copley says. “When I first came to the Island, I had no idea [that Smilley was a Special Olympics athlete]. He just swims like the other kids. I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s almost to the point where he’s going to these competitions and just cleaning up.”
Indeed, he’s been competing for 10 years now, and brings home medals every time. Due to his swimming prowess, Smilley has travelled extensively, competing in events in China, Greece, Ireland, Puerto Rico, Florida and California and is something of a superstar within Special Olympics, says McDowall. He makes friends wherever he goes and emails people around the world.
The fact that he is a natural swimmer does not mean it all comes easily to him, however. Smilley trains six days a week, with double training sessions twice a week.
He’ll swim 35-40 kilometres in a week - and that’s in addition to holding down a full time job with Red Sail Sports. The greatest challenge for Smilley though - and for many Special Olympics athletes - is mastering the technical aspects of the sport, says McDowall. It requires a great deal of repetition and hard work on their part.
Among Special Olympics athletes, Smilley is something of an anomaly, says McDowall.
He’s a gifted swimmer, he’s self motivated, willing to put in the hours and he has the competitive drive that not all athletes do.
For many athletes who are not in the elite category that Smilley is in, simply completing the course is a victory for them, Johnson observes.
When Kanza competes, her mother says, she will often raise her fist in the air at the end of a race and say “I won!” regardless of where she placed. “I don’t think she really has a concept of losing,” says her mother.
And why should she when in so many senses she is indeed a winner?
article by Natasha Were
