Special care brings games to Idaho

Sun Valley couple spearhead 2009 Special Olympics

by DANA DUGAN

Pirie and Jim Grossman pooled their considerable resources to bring Idaho international recognition. Express photo by Dana DuGan.

Jim Grossman has a great poker face. The Sun Valley resident fooled his wife, Pirie, and mother, Peggy, when he took a call Tuesday, May 16, from the International Special Olympics site committee. Along with a TV crew and many other onlookers, they watched while Grossman said, "Yes, yes, OK," into the phone, never letting on whether the city of Boise had or had not been given the 2009 Winter Special Olympics.

Finally, as Grossman related later, the committee member on the other end of the phone wondered why he wasn't more excited, and he smiled broadly. Then everyone was in on the excitement of winning the prestigious games over Reno, Nev., Schladming-Graz, Austria, and Garmisch Partenkirchen, Germany.

What the Grossmans pulled off in bringing the Special Olympics to Boise was nothing short of superhuman. Most locales have six years minimum to prepare a bid for consideration, but, after Sarajevo pulled out, whatever city actually won the bid would already be a year and a half behind.

The Special Olympics organization, formed by Eunice Kennedy Shriver in 1962, offers sports competition and training to people with intellectual disabilities. In the 1980s and 1990s, Jim's mother, Peggy Grossman, brought the Idaho State Special Olympics to Sun Valley. Her daughter, Courtney, 38, was born with intellectual disabilities and went on to become a medal-winning athlete.

"That's why the family is as compassionate as they are. The athletes are truly Olympian caliber," Pirie said. "It's important to remember they have intellectual disabilities, not physical. Courtney's medals are in a box right between Jimmy's and (brother) Johnny's."

The journey began innocuously enough when Peggy, Jim and Pirie Grossman attended a Special Olympics luncheon in Boise in early December 2005.

"I had just come off the Dalai Lama visit (in September for which she'd arranged the whole children's day event), and had been to a talk with Tony Robbins (the motivational speaker)," Pirie said. "We felt like we were looking for purpose. Olympian Lyle Nelson, from McCall, was giving an inspirational talk, and Jimmy was kicking me under the table. We thought, 'We have to do something.' We envisioned the Special Olympics in Sun Valley in 2012."

Later in December, Jim and Pirie were at a party at Maria Shriver and Arnold Schwarzenegger's home in Ketchum.

"Jimmy said to Maria, 'We want to get the games here.' She said, 'Go for it,' and then told us Sarajevo had just pulled out of the '09 games. We called Tim Shriver (Maria's brother and president and CEO of Special Olympics), and he said it was probably going to be given to Germany. But I knew in my heart it was going to happen. I'm like a bulldog."

Jimmy Grossman picked up the story.

"We were operating to a great degree in a vacuum. Reno had had the games before. Austria was the last to come in with a bid, and the games had been there before. It's politics. To get the International Olympics Committee games you have to have held prior games. Special Olympics is a natural thing to try to do. We truly came from standing still to 100 miles per hour like that," he said, snapping his fingers.

"The Special Olympics committee said it was the best bid they'd ever seen. As remarkable as that is, it was the fastest ever put together from venues, commitments, sponsors and the organization. It was also the heart and passion of the community. As a corollary to that, it's the legacy of what the games will have done for the community after it's over."

This will be the largest event Idaho has ever hosted. Similar in size to an International Winter Olympics, the 2009 Special Olympics World Winter Games should attract more than 2,000 athletes from 100 nations to compete in seven Olympic-type sports, including alpine and cross-country skiing, figure skating, floor hockey, snowboarding, snowshoe racing and speed skating.

Although the Grossmans originally had hoped the games could be in Sun Valley, it became clear that there were not enough large facilities or hotel rooms in the region. The opening event will likely host thousands of athletes, coaches, fans and families.

"Jimmy and I are chairs and CEOs for the Idaho games," Pirie said. "Salle Uberuaga is our executive facilitator. What we're doing now is meeting with Idaho Special Olympics, forming a 501c3, coming up with a logo, raising money, deciding on sites. We have to raise all the money."

Any Olympic game in the United States, both the international and the special, are funded privately, unlike in other countries.

The proposed budget for the Idaho games is $25 million, $5 million more than the Special Olympics committee set as a requirement.

In order to complete a bid, the organization must raise 20 percent of the event's final budget. The Grossmans raised $7 million in two weeks.

"At every meeting people said 'Yes,'" Pirie said.

Donors include Boise-based Hewlett-Packard; Nancy and Jean-Pierre Boespflug, the owners of Tamarack Resort near Cascade; Windermere Real Estate; and the Grossman family.

"We're going to have more Internet broadcast for every event. We're hoping for a two-hour special and highlights shown daily on cable, ideally Oxygen or Lifetime where they do more human-interest stories," Jim Grossman said. "We hope to use the media to allow people around the world to see one on one these athletes and what they are capable of."

Pirie said the Boise community came through in every way, making their job that much easier.

"We got everyone who is anyone in Boise in," she said.

Former Gov. Dirk Kempthorne and his wife, Patricia, said they would do what they could to help, Pirie said.

The Grossmans are hard at it now, back and forth to Boise. As a power couple, they've already managed to achieve what was a year ago not even a concept. For the Special Olympics Idaho, the games are already benefiting from their dedication, of which she's the heart and he's the head.

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.