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Special Olympics tests athletes' skills

The Havre Area Special Olympics were in in full swing Wednesday at Havre Middle School.

Athletes from all around the Hi-Line came to Havre to participate in the multi-event day. Around 90 competitors from Chinook, Shelby, Harlem, Havre and many other towns in the region banded together to test the skills they have been practicing for months and, in many cases, years.

Some of the events included track competitions like the 100-meter dash and long jump, the softball throw and bowling.

The day started off at the Havre Middle School track with a U.S. Border Patrol agent helping carry the torch around the track as the competitors followed, during the opening ceremony.

After the track and field events ended around noon, medals were awarded to the athletes by law enforcement officers and agents, then athletes who were competing in the bowling events headed over to Hi-Line Lanes.

Student volunteers from various high schools around the area traveled with the athletes to help them out and keep the competition running smoothly for the athletes.

The long day ended at the HRDC building with a dance for the competitors to unwind at.

Shaylee Lewis, a special education teacher at Havre High School, said she has been training athletes for the Special Olympics for 10 years now, since she began her work at the high school.

"Special Olympics gives our athletes the opportunity to live life through sports," Lewis said at one of Havre's many practices. "I think they take away a family and a support group and it's pure enjoyment for them."

Practicing for the Special Olympics gives the athletes something to do and something to be a part of, Lewis said.

"Just like a high school basketball team, they have the same sense of camaraderie," Lewis said at the practice in early April. "The competitions are just a culmination of the practices."

For some of the competitors, the Havre area games are the biggest events of the year. For others, the Montana State Olympics in Billings May 13 to 16 will be the biggest event.

The opening ceremonies for state begin, in a way, with the start of the torch runs from all over Montana. Each town with competitors going to the state Special Olympics is invited to relay run a torch from their town to Billings.

Havre's torch run begins at 8 a.m. next Friday, as athletes gather at the U.S. Border Patrol station to begin the leg of the trip that will have them running, walking and hiking the torch to Great Falls.

Mandy Hansen, a Special Olympics coach and spokesperson and kindergarten teacher at Harlem Elementary School, said she loves working with the athletes, whose ages range anywhere from 8 to 70.

"I'm actually amazed," Hansen said Tuesday. "I don't teach them anything. They teach me how they give it their all. It's such a positive thing to be around."

 

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