Athletes at their best

Published 4:12 pm Tuesday, May 31, 2011

By JUSTIN HALL
THE DAILY IBERIAN

Athlete Amanda Mickan of Richmond, Texas, left and Head Coach Cindy Landry of Lafayette at a training camp held in San Diego. Team USA came together to meet each other and train for a week for the competition.

Cindy Landry has the chance to accomplish what many local

athletes and coaches can only dream about when she travels to

Athens, Greece for the 2011 Special Olympics World Summer Games

this June.

“It’s an amazing situation to even be selected to go,” Landry

said. “It’s done through applications, definitely an application

process.”

Landry is the director of the Iberia Parish Special Olympics

program that sent more than 30 athletes to the state summer games

held in May at the University of Southeastern Louisiana in Hammond.

 

She said that she first got involved with Special Olympics

about 25 years ago when she was completing special education

classes at the Southwestern Louisiana University (now University of

Louisiana at Lafayette).

Those athletes at the state games represented Caneview

Elementary School, Daspit Road Elementary School, North Lewis

Elementary School, Pesson Elementary School, Delcambre High School,

New Iberia Senior High School, Westgate High School and the Iberia

Parish Outreach team, which is for athletes older than 21 years

old.

“It’s always a great adventure and a great experience for the

athletes,” Landry said. “A lot of them say, ‘This is the best

vacation I have ever been on.”

The Iberia Parish delegation was successful, winning 23 gold

medals, 20 silver medals, 19 bronze medals and seven fourth-place

finishes over the three day competition, with each athlete taking

home at least one medal, Landry said.

One of those athletes is Jamarcus Dennis, a 13-year-old

sixth-grader at Pesson Elementary School, who won two medals at the

competition, a gold medal in the shot put and a silver medal in the

100 meter run.

Landry said that Dennis is one of the best all-around athletes

she has on her team.

Dennis said he had a lot of fun on the trip to Hammond, having

never really been out of New Iberia before. He said that he made

some good friends at the meet and looks forward to seeing them next

year.

Dennis’ schoolmate, Kenyatta Hosley, was also a gold medalist,

finishing first in the 50 meter run and fourth in the softball

throw.

Hosely said she really had fun at the dance. Landry said that

when Hosely returned to school, she taught everyone her dance

moves.

Landry said that one of the goals of the Special Olympics is

not only competing in athletics but also to provide an atmosphere

where athletes can have a sense of independence, such as living

with a roommate in the university dorms.

The Special Olympics were founded by Eunice Kennedy Shriver,

sister of President John F. Kennedy and U.S. Sen. Robert F.

Kennedy, in 1968 as a way to give challenged athletes a forum to

showcase their talents.

Since then, the Special Olympics movement has spread to more

than 175 countries around the world and held the first world summer

games outside of the United States in Dublin, Ireland in

2003.

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