 By Jenny Pilecki LONG BEACH, US – It was around 10 a.m. on June 15, 2007, when the starter's pistol echoed across the Cal State University, Long Beach, campus.
With months of practice behind him, a 15-year-old boy flew down the runway towards the sand pit. Concentration painted on his face, his arms suddenly sprang out to the sides as he let out a victory cry of "quack quack." His fearless laugh rang out and a smile blossomed across his face. He gathered speed, and suddenly, with a ferocious leap, bounded through the air and landed feet first in the sand.
Arms up in triumph, he stepped out of his landing and headed towards his beaming coaches, exchanging high fives with them. His name is Tim Abel, and he is one of the many competitors at the Southern Section Special Olympics.
Abel won a medal for that jump at the Special Olympics meet in Southern California. What made Abel's jump special was not his distance, but rather that Abel also has a mild case of Down Syndrome, a genetic disorder that can cause mental retardation.
Abel has been participating in the Special Olympics program for almost five years now. In previous years, Abel has experimented with other sports, but as his mother explained with a smile, "we just really took to track." Tim is part of the Orange County team or, as they like to call themselves, the Orange County family of the Special Olympics. As the smallest team in the competition with only two participants, they did not expect to win much. But when Abel strutted up to the medal stand, their cheers boomed over the crowd. Not only was he the smallest boy up there, he was also the one with the biggest smile. Though Abel didn't get first place, he did not seem to show it when he ran up to his parents and embraced them in his best bear hug.
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But the journey to the medal stand had not been easy. Abel trained every Saturday for the past month before the meet. Each year, only a select few of the athletes on each team get to compete. This year only two, Abel and teammate Danicka Johnson, out of the fifteen total athletes on the Orange County Team were able to compete in the games. Even though they could not compete, the rest of Abel and Johnson's teammates continued to come out to practice and show their support."Tim has the brightest personality when he chooses to show it," Fox said, adding that he can be shy with his older teammates.
That shyness seems to disappear when the subject of Star Wars comes up. Abel is not just a fan, he is obsessed. His mother often has to drag him away from the T.V. just to get him out of the house. He also enjoys long bike rides and going out for ice cream and pizza. His favorite treat is chocolate. When asked if he wanted some chocolate after his victorious leap, all the athlete could manage was an excited "Yes!" He then devoured a bar in a matter of seconds.
Bill Shumard, the president and chief executive officer of Special Olympics of Southern California, once stated, "they truly are athletic heroes in every sense of the word." And though Abel and his fellow competitors are disabled, they push past those disabilities to compete.
Windham also praises the attitude Abel and the other competitors bring to the field. Abel is a determined, funny, kind-hearted young man with an energetic personality who always remembers to "flap like a duck" when he hits the track. Special Olympics organizers say it isn't about who comes in first, it's about getting a chance to compete, have fun, and learn life skills along the way. And yes, sometimes things get a little quaky, too.
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