Special Olympics PA athletes stay connected, active in second year of virtual Summer Games

Special Olympics Pennsylvania will kick off two weeks of virtual events Sunday to celebrate and recognize the hundreds of athletes who participated in this season’s “fitness heptathlon.”

Teresa Amaturo, central competition director for Special Olympics Pennsylvania, said each day of the event will highlight a different component of what the Special Olympics organization does, as well as showcasing competition highlights and guest interviews. Athletes will also find out their scores and placing for the past season.

“Really, it’s just focusing on what the Special Olympics is about and why it’s so important,” Amaturo said. “And as we start to look at being able to be in person, just reconnecting with our athletes and our volunteers as a whole and reminding them ... why they got involved in the first place.”

Unlike the traditional Pennsylvania Summer Games, where athletes would gather and compete over the course of one week, this year athletes competed in the fitness heptathlon over the course of 10 weeks, starting in late March.

Amaturo said the Pennsylvania Summer Games typically involve over 2,000 athletes converging at Penn State, but this year’s virtual event only has about 400 competing athletes.

“While it’s not our typical 2,000 athletes, we’re still able to reach athletes and have them be a part of a virtual Summer Games that they wouldn’t necessarily have been a part in if we were in person,” she said.

The fitness heptathlon has athletes choose seven of 26 exercises to practice over the designated time period. The exercises are sorted into three groups: agility, strength and endurance.

The athletes recorded their initial times doing each exercise in March, recorded their mid-season scores in April and reported their final scores in June. The goal was to see the range of improvement athletes could make with these exercises over the course of the season.

These scores will be used to place the athletes into divisions and then place them within those groups. Athletes also had the option to compete individually, in pairs or in teams.

One of this season’s athletes is State College resident Caitlin Baran, who has been competing in Pennsylvania’s Special Olympics for five years.

“I’m really glad that they’re having any type of ceremony,” Baran said. “Obviously, virtual is not the same as in person, but I really enjoyed the virtual ceremony last year.”

After participating in last year’s virtual games, Baran said she was part of an input committee that helped suggest plans for this year’s games. She added that she’s “really looking forward to” seeing how that planning paid off with the various events being held every day.

This season, Baran, 38, chose to compete in the five-ten-five, one leg stance with eyes closed, squats, curl-ups, mountain climbers, power punches and Roman holds. Baran also chose to compete in a pair, which means her scores will be averaged with her partner’s.

Baran said she trained every day of the season, both during twice-a-week Zoom workouts with other athletes from all over Pennsylvania, as well as training on her own time.

“One of the things I missed the most during this pandemic is being with my teammates, but I think that fitness heptathlon really helped with that,” she said. “It made me realize I still am part of a team, and I’m still part of Special Olympics. Even though we couldn’t be together in person, the virtual Zoom workouts really helped.”

Over the course of the season, Baran said she saw improvement in every one of her scores, some minor and some major.

What continues to keep her motivated, she said, is knowing that the effort she puts in during the virtual games will pay off once the games are back in person.

“I’ve always wanted to be an athlete, but didn’t really have a place to be an athlete until I found out I was eligible to participate in Special Olympics,” Baran said.

Community members are also invited to watch a livestream of the events on Special Olympics Pennsylvania’s Facebook page. For more information about the events and how to tune in at specialolympicspa.org/sports-and-games/2021-virtual-summer-games.

Opening ceremonies will take place at 7 p.m. Sunday.