Special Olympians on way to Athens

Published 12:01 am Friday, May 27, 2011

Jill Mayer and Kristie Clark are multisport athletes. Their skills already have taken them overseas. Soon, the Everett women will join thousands of competitors near the ancient birthplace of the Olympic Games.

Mayer, 34, and 38-year-old C

lark are Special Olympians. They are two of nine athletes from our state chosen to compete next month at the Special Olympics World Summer Games in Athens. In past events, they have skated and performed gymnastics. They are practiced in soccer and swimming.

In Greece, Clark will be bowling. Mayer will compete in golf. It’s all about winning — in the broadest sense of that word.

“Let me win! But if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt!” That’s the athletes’ oath of Special Olympics. The can-do message sums up the organization’s philosophy that all can participate, and each is a winner.

With the other Washington athletes, Clark and Mayer will leave Seattle on June 17 to join all of Team USA for a send-off in Baltimore. On June 18, they’ll fly to Greece. They’ll march with more than 7,000 athletes from 185 countries in opening ceremonies June 25 at Panathenaic Stadium. The Games end July 4.

Both women have impressive medal collections.

“I like to collect medals,” Mayer said last week when she visited The Herald with her parents, Bob and Donna Mayer. How many does she have? “A lot,” she said.

Born with Down syndrome, Jill Mayer lives with her parents in Everett. She has worked in retail and food service. She graduated from Everett High School in 1997. In 2003, she competed in the Special Olympics World Summer Games in Dublin.

In Ireland, Mayer earned medals in rhythmic gymnastics and met Eunice Kennedy Shriver, founder of Special Olympics. Shriver died in 2009. Jill Mayer also met Kennedy Shriver’s daughter, Maria Shriver, who became California’s first lady in 2003. “They were treated like heroes over there,” Bob Mayer said of the Special Olympians.

Jill Mayer earned a gold medal in golf skills at a state event last August. Friendships may be the greatest rewards for Special Olympians. “A big part of it is the friends she’s made,” Bob Mayer said.

The Mayers appreciate support from local coaches and officials, among them Everett Special Olympics coordinator Evelyn Pringle and coach Elaine Nave.

Nave is Kristie Clark’s mother. She is also Jill Mayer’s golf coach.

“I’ve also coached bowling, aquatics, and figure and speed skating, which Kristie does,” said Nave, who lives with her daughter in Everett.

Kristie Clark, a 1992 Mariner High School graduate, has learning disabilities that her mother said stem from a condition called “blue baby,” which involved lack of oxygen in the blood. “She’s a high-functional athlete,” Nave said.

For Clark, Greece will be a fourth time at a World Games. Nave said that in 1999 her daughter won three medals in gymnastics at the World Summer Games in Raleigh-Durham, and Chapel Hill, N.C. Clark then won three medals in speed skating in 2005 in Nagano, Japan, and a silver medal in figure skating at the 2009 World Winter Games in Boise, Idaho.

“Now it’s bowling,” said Nave, who can’t begin to guess her daughter’s lifetime medal count. “She does all the sports. She’s a busy girl.” Clark also works at a Boeing Co. executive dining room, her mother said.

Before the athletes leave for Greece, they’ll be recognized Wednesday by Everett Mayor Ray Stephanson at a City Council meeting. Kate Reardon, a city spokeswoman, said the women will be given certificates of accomplishment. The Snohomish County Executive’s Office will also honor the athletes’ achievements.

John Borgognoni, Special Olympics Washington’s vice president of sports and programs, will travel to Greece with the athletes. Both skill and chance play into their selection for World Games, he said. Team USA’s 52 smaller teams are allocated a certain number of slots for participants. Names of athletes earning medals in annual qualifying events are “put in a hat,” Borgognoni said.

Only so many can go to Greece. They’re all winners — and they want to keep winning.

As Jill Mayer practices her putting, driving, chipping and other golf skills, her father sees competitive fire.

“She wants to win that gold,” he said.

Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460, muhlstein@heraldnet.com.