Special Olympics Alaska announced that it will send a 69-member delegation to represent Alaska at the 2022 Special Olympics USA Games, being held next summer in Orlando.
Team Alaska is comprised of 29 Special Olympics athletes, 11 Unified partners, 13 coaches, and 16 support staff. The delegation will compete in eight sports – basketball, bocce, bowling, golf, gymnastics, powerlifting, swimming, and track & field.
Hosted every four years, the gathering will mark the largest humanitarian event in Florida’s history. More than 5,500 athletes and coaches from all 50 states and the Caribbean will attend the week-long games in June 2022, as will more than 10,000 volunteers. It is anticipated over 125,000 families, friends and spectators will witness the competitions, which will be centered at ESPN Wide World of Sports at Walt Disney World Resort.
Members of Team Alaska were chosen based on their performance in the 2019 state games. These athletes will represent community programs from Anchorage, Central Peninsula, Juneau, Ketchikan, Kodiak, Mat-Su and Tanana Valley.
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Special Olympics was created in 1968 by the late Eunice Kennedy Shriver for the benefit of persons with intellectual disabilities. Shriver, a lifelong pro-life Democrat, was the sister of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert Kennedy, and Senator Edward Kennedy. She died in 2009.
Today more than 1 million Special Olympics athletes participate in the organization. In Alaska, Special Olympics serves more than 2,000 athletes.
Alaska’s Special Olympics Athletes headed to the 2022 USA Games
BASKETBALL PLAYERS
- Alex Guess
- Logan Christianson
- Nathaniel Hunt
- Tony Hepinstall
- Vidal Snell
- Zach Kolstad
- Cedric Roland
- Cody Bryan
- Durell Snell
- Spencer Koval
BOCCE
- Josh Delie
- Samuel Eason
- Alexis Lewis
- Tina Lewis
BOWLING
- Amanda Reichman
- Faith Renwick
- Patti Colander
- Samantha Hoffman
- Anthony Brohard
- CJ Umbs
- Leroy George
- Tyler Anderson
GOLF
- Stephen Woodward
- Jerrid Palmetier
GYMNASTICS
- Jordan Sitka
POWERLIFTING
- Jonathan Williams
- Amy Canavan
SWIMMING
- Darryl Magen
- Anya Forrester
TRACK & FIELD
- Sulynette Vega
- Sunshine Hootch
- Gretchen Winter
- Also competing in Track & Field are four athletes and four Unified partners from the Unified Champion Schools Program.
