Going for Gold: 5 Sports in Grand Forks Special Olympics

I have been a Special Olympics athlete since I was 15 years old.  I’ve done a lot of sports like track and field, snowshoeing, basketball, bowling, volleyball, bocce, powerlifting, and soccer.  Special Olympics is a year-round thing that we train for every month. Special Olympics is where athletes can compete. You can help too by going to our website at specialolympicsnd.org.

These are my top 5 Grand Forks Special Olympics sports that I have done:

Basketball helps us build stamina.  Basketball is a competitive sport.  In basketball, we dribble, pass, defend, and shoot.  Basketball is good exercise because you run back and forth and chase the ball everywhere it goes.  Basketball is hard and some of us can’t get it through the hoop. Hydration is a good thing for sports.  If you like basketball, go to our website and sign up to be a coach.

Bowling is fun if you get a strike or a spare, not a gutter ball.  If you get a gutter ball, you will get a bad score at the end. In bowling you can have your own ball or use the bowling alley’s balls.  We used to travel to Bismarck but we now just stay here in Grand Forks for our tournaments. Our state tournament is usually at the beginning of November. One way to help as a volunteer in bowling is to supervise what athletes are meant to do or become a coach.

In volleyball you bump, set, spike, and serve.  You need to move your feet when you play volleyball. Volleyball is a unified sport, which means that people with or without intellectual disabilities can be on the same team.  You can become a unified partner in volleyball.  A partner is someone who helps athletes on the court to become what they are supposed to be.  You have to sign up to become a partner.  In volleyball, you can encourage athletes so they can hit it over the net.

Bocce starts at the end of July.  It is lawn bowling on the grass where you use one arm to throw the pallino, which is the little ball, then you throw the bigger ball close to the white pallino. You can wear anything you want in bocce ball like sweatpants or shorts. In bocce ball, you can be a partner.  It is another Unified Sport.

In powerlifting, we lift weights like dumbbells or the bench press or the deadlift.  I like it because I get to train in it so I can become stronger.  If you have the right form, powerlifting is fun.

I train in powerlifting but don’t compete at state.  I don’t compete because I don’t want to break my back doing a deadlift.  I took second place in the bench press at our districts.  You can become a coach in powerlifting.

Special Olympics North Dakota Grand Forks (or SOND Grand Forks) is for exciting and amazing people like you guys!  SOND Grand Forks is a cool organization.  Come and join the Grand Forks team!

Find out more about how to get involved with Grand Forks Special Olympics here.