"2009, here we come," said a weary Special Olympics 2009 World Winter Games Chief Operating Officer Kirk Miles.
Speaking Tuesday from his home in Kansas City, where he was taking a much-needed rest, Miles lauded the outcome of the Special Olympics Winter Invitational Games, which ended Thursday, Feb. 24, after a four-day stand in Idaho.
Miles has been with the Special Olympics since its inception in 1968 at Eunice Kennedy Shriver's home. He was its youngest CEO at 23, and ran the Kansas City program for eight years. More recently he has been working with Special Olympics International.
"The Invitational Games are used as a test," he said. "It's to test our readiness in many areas. The 2009 World Winter Games Operating Committee requires there be test games. My feedback from Special Olympics International was that they were very pleased. We have obstacles: We were a year late, we had leadership changes, and there were financial issues early on. They said it was way beyond their expectations and that it was one of the best they'd seen."
The winter sport games were held in Boise, Tamarack and Sun Valley.
"We have a lot to do and improve on but this highlights the issues so we'll be ready for '09 when the world will be focused on Boise, Sun Valley and all of Idaho," Miles said. "One of our key issues was the unpreparedness for the kind of response we had for volunteers. We had more than 6,000 contact us to volunteer for about 2,000 positions."
Among the issues the committee faced were communication, scheduling and software programs that needed to be replaced.
"We're taking a hard look to develop systems," Miles said. "Volunteers are very important. Other than the athletes, there's no more important constituency. It's very key to our mission. In Sun Valley it was just really incredible. We had to scramble to put together the venue with Sun Valley Co., and the volunteers all came out. Everyone said how wonderfully friendly they were. The response was fabulous and the day picture-perfect."
Ketchum resident and 2009 Winter Games CEO Chip Fisher couldn't help but be proud of his hometown.
"Sun Valley was over the top," he said. "The town came out in spades: Volunteers, companies who released their employees for the day. It will be 10 times as big next year. We have 3,600 athletes who want to come. We have to hold the number down. These are the biggest games that will ever be held for a Special Olympics, and bigger than any multi-day winter event ever."
Fisher said he was most impressed with the Healthy Athletes program, developed in 1996 to improve athletes' ability to train and compete in Special Olympics.
"There are seven disciplines they put the athletes through," Fisher said. "They check everything—health, nutrition, eye, teeth and ears. One girl who was always holding on to her mother got a pair of glasses. She looked at her mother and said, 'Mommy, you're beautiful.' She'd never really seen her. Another guy needed glasses and his prescription wasn't something we could do there so we had to get them made in New York. We got them back in one day. We're saving lives and savings people's sense of self-respect and giving them self-empowerment."
Athletes from Sun Valley received their share of self-respect too.
Jerry Smith, 52, of Bellevue won a gold in M4 novice super G, Grant Swindle, 21, from Hailey won gold in the M1 novice super G and silver in the giant slalom, and Nathan Lago, 13, from Hailey won a bronze in M2 giant slalom.
"We are so excited about our Special Olympic athletes," Sun Valley Adaptive Sports Program Director Cara Barrett said.
They were accompanied on their trip to Bogus Basin by their parents, as well as by Lilly Davies, Sun Valley Adaptive Sports volunteer coordinator and event program coordinator, Lani Winkler, Sun Valley Adaptive Sports office manager and event volunteer, and her husband, volunteer Wayne Winkler.
Lani Winkler said the athletes greeted each other like old friends from past competitions.
"They were no longer on the outside sitting on the curb watching the others," she said. "Now it was the others watching them and they were loving the attention. This was their time, their Olympics. They were not different (but) all the same, athletes with desires and goals."
For more information through the eyes of some Idaho high school students, type "2008 Boise Youth Summit" into your Web browser, or go to specialolympics.org.
Nathan Lago, of Hailey, celebrates on the podium with his bronze medal in Giant Slalom Photo by
