Saturday, April 30 will be a busy day for Northern Kentucky Special Olympics athletes with both the Area 7 Track and Field Meet and the Northern Kentucky Swim Meet being held in Erlanger.
The Area 7 Track and Field Meet will be held at Lloyd High School. The Meet includes more than 60 athletes from Boone, Bracken, Campbell, Grant, Kenton, and Pendleton Counties. The event gets underway with Opening Ceremonies, including the parade of athletes, at 9:45 a.m. The competition begins at 10:00.
This is the third of four weekends of the Special Olympics Area Track and Field season, which concludes May 14 in Louisville. The Area 7 Track and Field Meet is one of eight regional track and field meets held statewide this year. In all, more than 700 athletes with intellectual disabilities throughout the state will participate in regional track and field competitions, making track and field the largest participation event in the Special Olympics program in Kentucky.
The Northern Kentucky Swim Meet will be held at Silverlake Recreation Center in Erlanger. Opening Ceremonies will begin at 3 pm and events will start at 3:15 pm. The more than 120 athletes from across the state competing in the meet includes Maddie Brinkman of Union. Brinkman is one of four swimmers who will represent the state as part of Team Kentucky at the 2022 Special Olympics USA Games, July 5-11, in Orlando, Fla. Fellow USA Games swimmer Justin Hale — who lives in Crestwood, but trains with the Northern Kentucky Dolphins swim team – will also compete in the meet.
Participants in both events automatically qualify to compete in the Special Olympics Kentucky State Summer Games to be held June 3-4 at Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond. Swimmers must compete in two of the program’s six swim meets during the season to qualify for the State Summer Games.
For more information about either event, contact Special Olympics Kentucky Vice President of Field and Athlete Services Kim Satterwhite at 800-633-7403 or via e-mail at ksatterwhite@soky.org.
Special Olympics is the world’s largest program of sports training and competition for children and adults with intellectual disabilities. Participation in competitive events is open to all individuals eight years of age or older. Training and competition in local, area, state, and national programs is offered year-round in Kentucky in 15 sports. In addition to its traditional sports competitions, Special Olympics also offers early childhood programming through the Young Athletes Program and medical screenings though the Healthy Athletes Initiative. Special Olympics Kentucky began as a one-day event in Louisville in 1970 and has expanded to serve more than 8,300 athletes statewide annually. Special Olympics celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 2018.
Special Olympics Kentucky