Special Olympics Indiana – Ripley Ohio Dearborn Counties’ athlete, Chris Perdue, will depart Sunday, December 11th from the Indianapolis International Airport for Killington, Vermont. The 17-year-old, South Ripley High School student, will join the Special Olympics national team for a week of training. The athletes will train with their Special Olympics USA coaches and bond with teammates from across the country before traveling to Austria together for the 2017 Special Olympics World Winter Games next March.
Special Olympics USA is comprised of 150 athletes, 40 coaches and approximately 20 delegation members who support team operations, for a total delegation of 210.
Perdue will compet
e in the sport of snowboarding at the 2017 World Winter Games in Austria. He has a history of success snowboarding at the State-level and has been training for his trip with the USA Team with his local coaches. Perdue got his start competing in snowboarding at Special Olympics Indiana’s Winter Games – taking place annually at Perfect North Slopes in January. During this year’s competition, Perdue took home two gold medals competing in the intermediate and advanced snowboarding events.
The USA Team also includes Special Olympics Unified Sports teams, where people with and without intellectual disabilities compete together, as teammates. Team members will compete in seven sports: alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, figure skating, floor hockey, snowboarding, snowshoeing and speed skating.
The skiers, snowboarders and snowshoers will practice at Killington Resort, while all of the speed skaters and figure skaters will head to Spartan Arena in Rutland. Floor hockey will train at Castleton University.
While the second-ever Special Olympics International Winter Games were held at Smuggler’s Notch in Vermont in 1981, this is the first time the Special Olympics USA training camp has been held in Vermont.
Upon his return from training camp, Perdue will continue to train at Perfect North Slopes with his local snowboarding coaches, Jimmy Laub and Justin Uhlman and his strength building coach, Tim Paul, at the Tyson Community Gym in Versailles.
Less Than 100 Days ’til Austria
Every two years, the world transcends the boundaries of geography, nationality, political philosophy, gender, age, culture and religion to come together for the Special Olympics World Games. Alternating between summer and winter Games, this event is the flagship event of the Special Olympics movement, which promotes equality, tolerance and acceptance around the world.
On December 3rd, Special Olympics celebrated being 100 days out from the World Winter Games 2017. In just over three months, the USA delegation will travel overseas to join 3,000 athletes from 110 nations competing in nine Olympic-type sports.
The Games will be spread throughout Austria in Graz, Ramsau and Schladming, from March 14-25, 2017.
ESPN to Champion World Games
Special Olympics is very excited to announce that the ESPN and ABC networks will deliver coverage of the Special Olympics World Winter Games 2017 for the first time ever.
ESPN’s global television networks and digital media will bring extensive coverage to sports fans and supporters of the Special Olympics movement around the world. ESPN’s coverage, from March 18-25, marks the first-ever global coverage for a World Winter Games event.
As an official broadcaster of the Special Olympics World Winter Games, ESPN’s television coverage will be carried across its networks in the U.S. as well as streamed through WatchESPN and the ESPN App.
