RUMFORD – Wednesday morning was a special day for 89 winter athletes at the Black Mountain of Maine ski area.
Many of them won gold, silver and bronze medals, and ribbons for top finishes on the last day of the Special Olympics of Maine Winter Games for Oxford and Kennebec counties.
Laughter, friendship gatherings for pictures, hugs and excited voices competed for attention with Olympics theme music at the end of each Nordic and snowshoe heat race as medals were awarded.
“I had a blast!” said 17-year-old Tim Williams, summing up the experience while mugging for pictures on the Nordic track with Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School teammates.
Williams said he was happy about winning a silver medal for a second place finish in Heat 1 of the cross-country ski, junior, 100-meter race, and third and a bronze in Heat 1 of the junior 500-meter race.
But, what he liked best was eating ice cream and staying up late Tuesday night after the Special Olympians’ dance in the ski lodge.
Amber Lund, 16, of SAD 11’s Gardiner team, said she liked the skiing and snowmobile rides best. That, and the fact that Special Olympics organizers misspelled her last name as “Lunch” on her name tag and in their data sheets.
Athletes won gold, silver and bronze medals for first, second and third finishes in each heat of junior and senior divisions for Nordic races of 100 meters, 500 meters and 1 kilometer; snowshoe heats of 25 meters, 50 meters and 100 meters; and downhill, slalom, giant slalom, and dual-ski downhill.
At the end of each heat race, excluding downhill competitions, two Rumford policemen and a Rumford firefighter awarded medals to Nordic winners, while two Gardiner policemen presented medals to winning snowshoe athletes.
Top Alpine finishers were awarded their medals after all but the dual-ski downhill competition had been completed.
While getting ready to leave after the Nordic competition, Randy Saragosa of Gardiner hugged and congratulated his two daughters, 11-year-old Amanda Mullen and 9-year-old Magan Mullen, the event’s youngest competitor.
“Good job, munchkin!” Saragosa said to Magan after she won silver in the 100-meter race.
“I’m proud of my girls,” he added.
So, too, were many parents, coaches and volunteers, who gathered in a big circle on the snow with the athletes for the closing ceremonies, singing “Auld Lang Syne,” holding hands and rocking side to side.
The games were held especially for Oxford and Kennebec counties’ residents, who couldn’t participate in the annual Special Olympics of Maine at Sugarloaf Ski Resort in Carrabassett Valley due to a lack of lodging. Each year, two counties have to sit out the annual games due to the lodging situation, according to Cara Maloney, a regional coordinator for Special Olympics of Maine. This was the first year Oxford and Kennebec counties decided to have their own.
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