Salt Spring’s Special Olympic athletes like a true challenge.
In recent years that has seen swimming and bocce teams train and travel to attend competitions at provincial and national levels, often returning home with medals in hand.
Without those opportunities available this year, six local swim team members decided to create an original substitute challenge: tracking their swimming distances in the pool and matching them to how far they would travel if swimming in the ocean around Salt Spring Island.
“In January we started adding up the collective kilometres they did,” said Jill Schulze, who coaches the swimmers alongside fellow volunteer Rob Wiltzen.
Until their season ended March 12, the swimmers had tallied 24.2 kilometres from their one-hour Thursday swim sessions.
“As a group of six, that is pretty impressive,” said Schulze. “It’s roughly the distance from Ganges to Fulford. They still have a goal of going all the way around the island, but that might take us all of next year.”
The group estimates a complete circumnavigation would take 133 kilometres worth of strokes. Athletes will resume their journey when swim season begins again in September.
“They’ve been working really hard at their endurance,” said Schulze. “They like to be challenged that way.”
The swimmers are Carlos Manzano, Debbie McNaughton, Jason Newport, Dawn Hadler, Claire Motherwell and Pam MacDonald.
Group secretary Carol Newmeyer said more volunteers are always needed to support Special Olympics athletes and programs. Restarting both the golf and Club Fit programs and initiating a new one called Fundamental Youth, for kids aged seven to 12, are among the local group’s goals that depend on getting enough committed volunteers, she said. People can contact volunteer coordinator Lisa Foster at saltspring.volunteer@specialolympics.bc.ca for more information about how to help out.