The Special Olympics returns to Northern Kentucky as the Area 7 Track and Field Meet will be held at Lloyd Memorial High School on April 30.
The track meet includes more than 60 athletes from Boone, Bracken, Campbell, Grant, Kenton and Pendleton counties. The event gets underway with Opening Ceremonies, including the parade of athletes, at 9:45 a.m. The competition begins at 10:00.
This is the third of four weekends of the Special Olympics Area Track and Field season, which concludes May 14 in Louisville. The Area 7 Track and Field Meet is one of eight regional track and field meets held statewide this year. In all, more than 700 athletes with intellectual disabilities throughout the state will participate in regional track and field competitions, making track and field the largest participation event in the Special Olympics program in Kentucky.
The Northern Kentucky Swim Meet will be held at Silverlake Recreation Center in Erlanger. Opening Ceremonies will begin at 3 p.m. and events will start at 3:15 p.m. The more than 120 athletes from across the state competing in the meet includes Maddie Brinkman of Union.
Brinkman is one of four swimmers who will represent the state as part of Team Kentucky at the 2022 Special Olympics USA Games, July 5 through 11, in Orlando, FL. Fellow USA Games swimmer Justin Hale, who lives in Crestwood, but trains with the Northern Kentucky Dolphins swim team, will also compete in the meet.
Participants in both events automatically qualify to compete in the Special Olympics Kentucky State Summer Games to be held June 3 and 4 at Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond. Swimmers must compete in two of the program’s six swim meets during the season to qualify for the State Summer Games.
