HAWKESBURY athletes Sandy Freeman, Madison Cooper and Michael Glenday all competed at the Special Olympics National Games in Adelaide last week, with all three competitors coming away with medals from the event.
22-year-old Freeman did particularly well, winning all of the events that she competed in while at the games.
Cooper also won a gold medal, while she and Glenday both bagged silver and bronze medals at the competition.
Freeman competed in five swimming events: the 1500-metre open water; 400-metre freestyle; 200-metre freestyle; 200-metre backstroke; and, the team 4x50-metre medley. She took home gold medals for each of those events in the F1 division.
Freeman said she had a great time competing at the week-long games, where she travelled as part of the New South Wales-squad.
“My favourite moment was winning the open water event. I really like it,” Freeman said.
“It was great spending time with 1000 athletes from across Australia too. I like meeting different people when I compete at the games.”
Freeman said after her efforts at the national games this year, she was looking forward to hopefully qualifying for the Special Olympics World Games.
The world games will be hosted in Dubai next year, and will see Special Oylmpics athletes from across the globe compete at them.
Freeman competed at the world games while representing Australia in 2015 at Los Angeles, and also in 2011 at Athens, where she was the youngest Australian on the team.
Cooper, who is from Windsor, also competed in swimming events at the national games, winning a gold medal in the relay team 4x50-metre freestyle team event.
The 26-year-old Cooper competed in the F3 division in the 100-metre freestyle, 100-metre breaststroke and 200-metre individual medley. She won a bronze medal in the breaststroke, while also winning silver medals in the freestyle and individual medley events.
Cooper said it was the first national games she had been to, after she started competing in the Special Olympics in 2016.
“It was a nice experience. I've never got to do anything like that before, it was great, I'd love to go again,” she said.
“Being in an team environment was a lot of fun. It was good to meet new people and make new friends and enjoying my time.”
Cooper, who has been swimming since she was 17 and has trained with Freeman in the past, said she too was hoping to qualify to go to Dubai next year.
“That would be great, but I guess we will wait and see what happens and go from there,” she said.
Glenday, who told the Gazette last year that he took up ten-pin bowling as a way to meet new people, also grabbed some medals at the games.
The 37-year-old from North Richmond competed in both singles and doubles bowling at the games, which had some big fields of competitors.
In the M7 division, he came away with a bronze medal for his singles score of 386. Meanwhile in the doubles, he combined with Ashley Emerson in the MD4 division.