Anna’s been training since January to compete in the Individual Skills for Basketball in the Special Olympics and her competition was last weekend. I was so proud of her for winning a gold medal! It was set up so well (even though we had to drive to San Marcos), each athlete was teamed up with two others from other districts who had similar skills so each person had a chance to win a medal.
We arrived on time but they were way behind so we had about 40 minutes to fill up, so we wandered around campus. Spring is just starting to show its beautiful face.
The gym was very crowded and chaotic and the lighting was horrible. She handled everything pretty well after we found a quiet spot on the wall to wait. I have to say that the gym images are not good technically… high ISO and low shutter speed yielded a lot of grain and motion blur but they capture my girl in action so they warm my heart.
There were three skill areas. In the first, Anna had to make five shots at the basket from five different spots. She’s used to sinking shots in a regular sized basket, so she had to adjust to the shorter basket. She sunk so many in a row that the entire crowd ended up cheering for her. You can almost see the joy on her face.
The next skill area involved dribbling the ball down half court then back again.
The last skill area involved throwing a ball at a target on a wall five times. She did pretty good on this one too.
I didn’t realize until later that each athlete is sponsored by a volunteer. Anna’s sponsor was HEB. She was so excited to get her very own name badge!
Anna was quite nervous to stand on the #1 podium so she had her volunteer hold her from behind while she got her medal.
Proud girl!!!
Thanks for looking and celebrating with us!
