For the first time in eight years, the vibrant energy of the Special Olympics World Winter Games will ignite as athletes from more than 100 countries converge in Turin to compete in eight sports.
The Special Olympics is the largest sports organisation for individuals with intellectual disabilities, also known as learning disabilities, providing crucial training and competition opportunities at local, national and regional levels. The Winter Games officially began on Saturday night with the opening ceremony at the Inalpi Arena.
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While Special Olympics World Games typically alternate between summer and winter every two years, the wait for these Winter Games has been unusually long. The last such event was held in Austria in 2017, and the 2022 Games, originally slated for Russia, were postponed due to Covid‑19 and then cancelled after the invasion of Ukraine.
Special Olympics Great Britain (SOGB) has sent 10 dedicated athletes and for Stefan Nakoneczny, one of eight SOGB alpine skiers competing, the journey to Turin has been one of resilience and patience. “For us as a family, it was pretty devastating because he’d been working towards this for 10, 15 years,” says his father, Jeremy, of the cancelled 2022 Games.
“You never know what the selection process is. You never know whether he’s going to be picked again.”
Nakoneczny, 34, is non-verbal and discovered his love for skiing during a family trip to Vermont. “Stef never leaves our side. He never wanders. He’s always within five feet of us, wherever we go, whatever we do,” Jeremy says. “We were chatting away when all of a sudden we heard this squealing. We looked around and we couldn’t see Stef. We realised he’d taken the ski chair to the top and was hurtling downhill and straight for us.
“The instructor was pushing everybody, saying: ‘Get out of the way. He’s going to hurt himself.’ But Stef came to the bottom, twisted his hips, sprayed everybody with snow, and went: ‘Well, that was good, wasn’t it?’ First time ever on snow. I still don’t know where he got it from.”
From that moment, nurturing Nakoneczny’s passion became a priority. SOGB, with its mission to transform lives through sport, provided the perfect avenue. Operating in England, Scotland and Wales, the charity empowers more than 6,600 athletes in 27 sports, supported by a dedicated team of 3,800 volunteers.
Nakoneczny will be joined by seven other skiers, competing across novice, intermediate and advanced levels at the Games. The head coach, Bob Thow, has trained skiers for 40 years and has the job of developing the athletes’ technical skills on the slopes and nurturing a positive social environment, where every athlete feels valued and supported. “I was in the army cadets as one of the training officers. I dealt with training there, even designing competitions. I’ve also coached football. Some of my players still play in the top leagues in Scotland and England,” Thow says of his experience.
“I’ve always maintained the same philosophy. We’re all in it together. If somebody’s got a problem, we’ve all got that problem. With learning disabilities sometimes they’re the people that get shoved aside. In my team they don’t get shoved aside. It’s my team. It’s Bob’s team and I am strong in that.”
Like Nakoneczny, Annabelle Lamb, 26, found her passion for skiing on a family holiday in Whistler. According to her mother, Melanie, at 17, Lamb “wasn’t happy because she felt neglected” but competing with SOGB has been transformative in boosting her confidence.
“I would barely speak to anyone,” says Lamb. “Nine years ago, I wouldn’t dare. But since coming into skiing, people just talk to me. And I started adapting to groups of people. I didn’t know what to do [growing up]. I just felt like I kept hitting the dead end and I couldn’t find an interest that stuck with me. With skiing, I’ve found a purpose.”
Stephanie Gott, 27, and Oliver Snook, 20, will represent SOGB in figure skating and their goals have been to focus on routines that rely on physical and artistic expression.
“We describe it as baking a cake,” says Paul Crocker, SOGB’s figure skating head coach. “You make the cake and then you decorate it afterwards. We do all the technical bits first, all the footwork, and then we add the arms and the emotion.”
Gott and Snook are hoping to win a medal in Turin but will take the experience as a way to learn and improve their skating no matter where they place. “As a team, our goal as coaches is to make sure these two can skate their best on the day. We know they will give it their best shot and the rest will speak for itself,” Crocker says.
While viewers in North America can tune into live events on ESPN, people in Britian can only hope to catch the best clips of the action online with no broadcast partneri. “The Special Olympics is very similar to the Paralympics,” says Lamb. “When they first started, they didn’t get much recognition. But the more we speak and share about it, the more it can grow. And it’s quite easy to access, even if you just type it on socials, it just pops up. Hopefully, one day we can have an opportunity for more people to tune in.”
