The great American indoor sport of bowling has become one of the fastest growing Special Olympics sports. Introduced as a Special Olympics sport in 1975, bowling debuted on the Olympic level with just 33 athletes competing in 1987. By the 2003 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Dublin, there were 269 athletes from 40 programs in competition.
With the 2009 Special Olympic World Winter Games coming to Boise, Sun Valley Adaptive Sports assembled the valley's first team of Special Olympics athletes to train for the games. The team, made up of seven local athletes with cognitive disabilities, have been in training at Mountain Sun Lanes in Bellevue.
Special Olympics Eastern Idaho Regional Bowling Competition was held in Burley, on Saturday, Nov. 10. Team Sun Valley Adaptive Sports walked away with three first-place ribbons, and two second-place ribbons.
"The whole vibe and the energy—it was one of my most exciting days in Adaptive," SVAS Executive Director Tom Iselin said. "Rewarding, fulfilling and effervescent."
About 150 athletes competed. The Sun Valley team will resume training in the spring for the regional and state competitions to prepare for the 2009 Special Olympics.
In the meantime, some of Team Sun Valley Adaptive will now begin training in winter alpine sports on Dollar Mountain to prepare for the Regional and State Winter Games in February 2008 and eventually the World Games in 2009.