[I]n mid-December more than 200 athletes and coaches will descend on Killington for a weeklong training camp to prepare for the Special Olympics world winter games in Austria next year. The event comes on the heels of the women’s alpine World Cup, which gets underway this weekend.
Among the U.S. athletes competing in the Special Olympics winter games are two Vermonters: alpine skier Laura Buchanan and snowboarder Ethan Boragine. The games, held every four years, also feature cross-country skiing, figure skating, floor hockey, snowshoeing, and speed skating.
Lisa DeNatale, Special Olympics Vermont president and CEO, said the training camp will not only showcase the region’s recreational assets but will provide Vermonters with a better sense of the organization’s year-round programming.
According to DeNatale, Special Olympics Vermont offers 13 sports year round from basketball to track and field and swimming. It has a program for children ages 3 to 7, and an increasingly large number of unified sporting events or leagues that bring together athletes with and without developmental disabilities. Similar programming is provided in more than 60 schools and several colleges, DeNatale said.
“It’s really about breaking down those barriers and building a community of inclusion and acceptance,” DeNatale said. “We find it’s a learning and growing experience for all of the athletes.”
“All athletes need support,” Buchanan said at a press conference this week. “Special Olympics is important because it gives everyone a chance to know the joy of sports and being accepted.”
DeNatale said it was a coincidence that the training camp is happening just weeks after the women’s World Cup. However she said Killington’s snowmaking capacity was certainly a factor in the decision of both governing bodies to hold events at the resort. It is the first time Special Olympics USA has held a training camp in Vermont and the first time in 25 years that the East Coast has hosted an alpine World Cup event.
Killington has invested enormous resources in its snowmaking capabilities and according to a recent story in the New York Times has already produced enough snow to “bury a football field 42 feet deep.” Just before the recent stretch of cold weather, the World Cup race trail was covered in more than 30 inches of snow, the Times reported.
Natale said that Special Olympics USA looked at sites in Colorado and the possibility of holding a dual training camp with Canada. She said the Vermont chapter’s strong relationship with area schools, particularly Castleton University, was a big boost. Castleton students volunteer with the organization, and the university helps with programming and hosting events.
“It’s really a pretty robust partnership,” DeNatale said.
Although the training camp has never been held in Vermont, Smugglers’ Notch did host the second Special Olympics Winter Games in 1981. The 2017 games in Austria are scheduled for March 18 to 24.
