This morning at 9 am, the Owensboro Health Healthpark will be hosting the South and West Regional qualifying swim meet for the Special Olympics. Over 80 athletes will be competing from teams including Allen County, Bowling Green, Callaway/Murray, Spencer County, a team from Louisville, and the host Daviess County Water Rockets.
This is one of two qualifying meets being held in Kentucky, with all of the athletes automatically qualifying for the State Tournament in May, which is being held at the University of Louisville.
Tomorrow’s regional will be broken into two divisions, developmental swimmers and competition swimmers. The developmental swimmers are for those who are new or just learning their stroke. They will be swimming 15 and 25 yard events and may or may not need floating aids. The competition swimmers events include 25 and 50 yards, individual medleys, and relays across all four strokes.
“We’d like as many people as can come out to cheer for these athletes because they do it for themselves, but they also do it for their families,” coach Bruce Thomas said.
Thomas reiterated that people need to attend a Special Olympics event in person to truly see how much it means to the athletes.
“The athletes themselves only want encouragement from the crowd that is there or their fellow athletes, whether it is on their team or anyone else’s team,” Thomas said.
