Utah’s Special Olympics delegation ready for USA Games

Special Olympics USA Games kick off June 20 and run through June 26 in Minneapolis. Utah’s delegation is composed of 68 athletes and coaches who are focused on a few more days of practice before heading to the games.

Some practice individually, while others spend an hour or hours in the car traveling to practice with their teams. They represent towns from across the state and denote a variety of ages.

“We have representation from Tooele to St. George and Logan to Vernal,” said Special Olympics of Utah president/CEO Scott Weaver. “I think it’s a nice representation of our state and the diversity of our athletes. We are really excited to be taking them to Minneapolis for this event.”

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Utah’s programs have continued to grow in sports offered and opportunities for athletes to compete as individuals, teams or in pairs.

Mikaela Winterton is one of the athletes who will be representing Utah in bocce. Winterton’s hometown team is the Basin Raptors, who compete out of Roosevelt.

Winterton picked up bocce in high school and fell in love with it, so much so that she has a court in her backyard.

“My brother Tye built me my court,” Winterton said. “My favorite part of bocce is being outside, I also love winning.”

Winterton is on the Special Olympics of Utah’s athlete leadership council and works in the lunchroom at a local school during the school year. That means she’s gotten in some extra practice rounds with school out.

She also enjoys sharing bocce with others and hosted an event at last year’s Uintah Basin in Celebration that occurs annually in Roosevelt.

“Mikaela is a fun story because she did a passion project last year, and her passion project was to bring bocce to her community,” said Weaver. “She’s doing it again this year because it was so popular.”

In all, there are four players from Utah on the bocce team headed for Minnesota.

Switching gears to soccer, coach Bryan Karren said his team is ready to go. The squad of 10 is an all-star group of players.

“This is a strong team,” Karren said. “Eight of these players have experience with RSL Unified, two of them have high school and club experience and two of them have international experience with Unified Cup.

“We’re optimistic. We hope to hold our spot in Division I and finish on the podium. It’s a really, really tough group we are bringing.”

Edward Pont is a member of the soccer team and thrilled at the opportunity to compete in the games.

When asked what he is most excited about, the Clearfield resident Pont shared, “The opportunity to represent Utah.”

Pont said he has played with a handful of his team members for five to eight years and others for a couple years on RSL Unified or other teams. That familiarity is a driving force behind what makes the group so good together on and off the field.

“This is family,” Pont said. “Playing soccer helps me learn my position, helps me with my disability, which is intellectually behind. We help each other.”

For Pont, soccer is his sport and the one he has focused on.

“My mom is from England. Ever since I was a little kid, I was just drawn into soccer,” Pont said. “Ever since then, I don’t know what it is, but ever since I was a little kid, it’s the only sport I’ve played.”

The basketball and flag football teams are as big as the soccer team to make up the bulk of the delegation. Add in bocce, and Utah’s group is rounded out with bowling, golf and swimming.

The swim team is going to get some extra airtime from ESPN, which will stream 48 hours of live competition throughout the week.

“Sounds like the crew that will be at the swim venue looked at the athlete profiles and sort of pegged our group to do a feature on,” said Weaver. “I guess they are going to follow them at the venue while we’re there, so that will be fun for our athletes.”

Competition in Minnesota begins June 22 after the opening ceremony and a day of practice.