Medal Success At The Special Olympics Great Britain National Alpine Skiing Competition

A team from Dumfries & Galloway recently competed at the 2020 Special Olympics GB National Alpine Skiing Championships held in Crans Montana, Switzerland. This was the first time a team from Dumfries & Galloway had taking part in a Winter Games and has by far exceeded our expectations.  From the progression of the athletes, the event organisation and the many memories and friendships made on the way.  

The team of 4 skiers accompanied by 3 coaches did exceptionally well coming home with a fantastic medal haul of 2 Golds, 3 Silver and 1 Bronze medals a total of 6 medals and 4^th, 5^th, 6^th 2 x 7^th place ribbons.

Medal winners were: –

• Ryan Powell age 13 from Dalbeattie winning 2 Gold medals in the Giant Slalom and Slalom in the Novice race.
• Hayden Keir age 19 from Annan winning 2 Silver medals in the Giant Slalom and Super Giant Slalom in Intermediate division 4 and 5^th place ribbon in the Slalom in Intermediate division 2
• Lennon Hughes age 19 from New Abbey winning Silver in the Slalom in Intermediate division 3, Bronze in the Super Giant Slalom and 6^th in the Giant Slalom in Intermediate division 4.
• Sam Pattinson age 28 from Rigg, Gretna finishing with 2 x 7^th place ribbon in the Giant Slalom and Super Giant Slalom and a 4^th in the Slalom in the Intermediate division 1.

“LET ME WIN, BUT IF I CANNOT WIN, LET ME BE BRAVE IN THE ATTEMPT” is the Special Olympics Athletes Oath which one of our athletes Ryan was asked to read out at the open ceremony on behalf of all 90 athletes. All the D&G athletes certainly did this, with some fantastic performances in at times challenging weather conditions with all athletes giving 100% effort every time they stepped up to represent Dumfries and Galloway.

The team was supported by Dumfries & Galloway Disability Sport in partnership with D&G Council. Laura Vickers, Head of Delegation and Disability Development Officer with Dumfries & Galloway Council added “I would like to thank everyone who has made this amazing journey possible from Carlisle Snow Sports coaches Phil and Eric for helping set up weekly sessions at Carlisle, the amazing support team of Sandra Proudfoot our Assistant head of delegation and Josh Buchanan Head Coach.  A big thank you to all the families who travelled to support the team and most importantly I must thank the athletes for making it such an enjoyable week they conducted themselves with professionalism, dedication and are a credit to themselves, their families and Dumfries & Galloway”