UK Swimmer Laura bids for more medals at Special Olympics

by Yonnie McInnes from The Daily Record:
BEING born with Down Syndrome hasn’t stopped 19-year-old Laura Logan from achieving sporting success.
Laura, from Coylton, Souyth Ayrshire, has already lifted around 100 swimming medals and is aiming to win more.
For on Tuesday she left for Bath along with 217 Scotland West athletes to compete in the National Special Olympic Games on Sunday.
Laura is one of eight athletes, seven swimmers, one 10-pin bowler and three coaches from Ayrshire who are part of the Sports for Special Needs’ team; Laura is part of Kilmarnock Jets Swim Team.
Sports for Special Needs coach Joan O’Sullivan said: “Laura has been a member of our club since April 2007, she trains at the Galleon Centre in Kilmarnock every Tuesday evening and has been doing additional training at Drumchapel in Glasgow with the Scotland West Swim Team on the first Sunday of every month since being selected at the end of last year.
“All athletes who wish to be selected for the team apply, then they have to go through a compatibility test to see if they fit the criteria and trials.
“On the first round there were 70 applications for 40 places on the swim team, 22 males and 18 females to be selected. So it was an honour for all successful chosen athletes to gain a position to swim for the West of Scotland at the Special Olympics.”
Laura has achieved all this despite hearing problems that have meant a lot of operations, as well as a heart defect for which she needs a yearly check-up.

Garrett Holeve, an MMA Fighter With Down Syndrome, Is on His Way to Changing the Sport

 

By Chris Sweeney from the Broward Palm Beach Times:

"I'm dangerous," 23-year-old Garrett Holeve warns as he bounces around a bedroom in his parents' suburban, single-story house, throwing punches and kicks. A pungent combination of protein-powered farts, dirty laundry, and ball sweat permeates the air.

"I'll hurt a guy real bad," Garrett brags. "I'll be covered in too much blood, and I'll keep hurting him. Kick him in the mouth so hard the mouth guard flies out."

The words don't roll off his tongue. They bunch up in his throat and pour out in a slurred manner that's difficult to understand. This is just one of the ways Garrett's Down syndrome manifests itself.

"Oh, umm," he stammers frequently when looking for an answer. "Finding a fight takes time. My friend Chris is going to get me a fight."

He carries other telltale physical characteristics of the genetic condition: small ears that look like half-hearts, almond-shaped eyes, wide hands with short fingers, and a small, round mouth. Further affecting his health is rheumatoid arthritis that afflicts his right knee.

Garrett stands five feet tall and weighs 136 pounds. But he can drop to 125 pounds in a few days to make weight for his beloved sport, mixed martial arts. His black wifebeater reveals the tattoo of a black Punisher skull engulfed in black flames near his left shoulder. His neck and arms are solid muscle, large enough to make clear that his fists could permanently alter the alignment of an opponent's nose.

Here, in a modest home in one of Cooper City's gated communities, the floor is littered with kettlebells, a curl bar, a medicine ball, dumbbells, and two towel-covered milk crates that serve as makeshift pushup stands. Framed on the wall is the white tape in which MMA megastar Tito Ortiz wrapped his wrists for a recent Las Vegas fight. There's a poster of sharks, pictures of a half-dozen other professional fighters, and some torn-out pages of a Hooter's calendar featuring bikini-clad butts.

Playing on the flat-screen TV set is a DVD of Garrett's first exhibition bout earlier this year against a guy named Antonio Martin at Seminole Immokalee Casino. The crowd roars when Garrett throws a spinning backfist, but back in his room, the young man isn't paying attention. He's kneeing an imaginary opponent in the face before dropping to his knees to pound the thin, smelly air into submission. He then lifts his shirt and flexes his abs, a solid undefined wall of muscle padded by pasty white flesh. "This is the new me," he says enthusiastically.

Father of 19-year-old with Down syndrome: 'I couldn't be happier' son will be allowed to play as senior

 
from the Detroit Free Press by Mick McCabe:
 
The crusade is over. The Michigan High School Athletic Association is going to let 'em play.
An overwhelming 94% of responding schools voted to approve an amendment to the MHSAA constitution enabling students with disabilities to petition to participate as 19-year-olds.
"I think it tells us what to do," MHSAA executive director Jack Roberts said.
It has been a 2 1/2-year battle for Dean Dompierre, who wants his 19-year-old son Eric, who has Down syndrome, to be able to play on the Ishpeming football and basketball teams.
"I couldn't be happier," Dean Dompierre said. "It's a relief, after 2 1/2 years, to get some positive results from this."
MHSAA rules prohibit students from participating in athletics if they turn 19 before Sept. 1. It was the only rule in the MHSAA handbook not to have any exceptions. Michigan was one of 27 states that did not allow waivers to the maximum age rule.
But as the Dompierres became more aggressive in telling their story -- father and son testified before the state education committee in May -- the state senate passed a resolution encouraging the MHSAA to change its constitution.
"I think there was a concern that the legislature would try to write a rule and might write it badly but pass it anyway," Roberts said. "The feeling was if this was to be done, it should be done right. It shouldn't be any other state's model. It should be what we thought would work best in Michigan."
Beginning this fall, students with medically documented disabilities recognized by the Americans with Disabilities Act or Michigan's Persons With Disabilities Civil Rights Act can request a waiver to play as a 19-year-old if their educational process had been delayed before their enrollment in high school.
A student's disability must diminish physical and either intellectual or emotional capabilities and cannot create a health or safety risk to participants and does not create a competitive advantage for the team.

The waivers, which must be approved by the MHSAA's Executive Committee, will be for one year only and will allow students to compete in their first four years of high school enrollment.
Dean Dompierre began his campaign to add an amendment to the MHSAA's constitution when he realized Eric would be ineligible to play as a senior.
"I've spent hours and hours -- countless hours -- over the last 2 1/2 years sitting with a laptop in my lap, typing things up, sending things to people and receiving things from people. This certainly makes it all worth it," he said. "It's not just for Eric. It will be great to be able to see Eric play, but I'd love to be able to go to some other games to see kids who are going to benefit from this."
Roberts said the rule was not initially popular with school administrators, who were concerned over the growing number of disabilities and how the waiver process would be handled.
"I think the strength of the proposal we have prepared and has been adopted is this: There must be a medically documented disability before the student reaches seventh grade that has slowed the educational progress and is a direct cause of the slowed progress, and not just because the parents wanted to redshirt the kid," Roberts said.
Dompierre established a website ( letemplay.us) to present Eric's story. The website detailed the 23 states that allow waivers for students with disabilities to play as 19-year-olds and contained an online petition urging MHSAA officials to allow schools to vote on an amendment to allow a waiver.
"I never expected it to get as big as it did and to have as many people jump on board as did," Dompierre said. "The last I checked, it was over 93,000 people from all walks of life and all corners of the earth signed that petition. They had never ever met Eric, but they signed the petition. I'm sure there were hundreds, if not thousands, of letters sent to the MHSAA supporting these kids."

Watch ESPN's E:60 feature: http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=espn:7992850