Team Kentucky is one month away from departure for the 2026 Special Olympics USA Games.
Following is information about each member of Team Kentucky from Northern Kentucky, information on Team Kentucky’s travel plans and information about the USA Games.
Here is a link to a drive with still action photos, video and headshots of everyone named in the release.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1BZ9UlX2q628OI8Oq_kfdyTewlgoHw9Ac?usp=drive_link
Please call or e-mail if you have any questions.
Thanks,
Mark
For Immediate Release
May 19, 2026
Contact: Mark Buerger, Special Olympics Kentucky
859-338-6075
mbuerger@soky.org
Five from Northern Kentucky Ready to Depart
for 2026 Special Olympics USA Games
Frankfort, Ky. – One month from today, four Special Olympics athletes and one coach from Northern Kentucky will be on their way to the 2026 Special Olympics USA Games in Minneapolis, Minn., with Team Kentucky.
Maddie Brinkman of Union and Carmen Widener of Burlington will swim at the Games. Chris Revay of Ft. Mitchell will compete in golf. Daniel Hewitt of Erlanger will be part of the University of Louisville-based Unified basketball team that will play in Minneapolis. For the third consecutive USA Games, Debbie Ogden of Ft. Wright will serve as Team Kentucky’s swimming coach.
Brinkman, 26, returns to the USA Games for the second time after an incredible debut on the national stage in Orlando in 2022. Brinkman grabbed medals in each of her three events including individual gold in the 50-yard backstroke and team gold in the 4×50-yard medley relay. She earned a bronze in the 50-yard freestyle. She has been a Special Olympics athlete for eight years, competing in track, softball and bowling in addition to swimming. Brinkman is also an Athlete Ambassador for the program. She works for Year-Round Partner Texas Roadhouse in Florence. Brinkman is scheduled to swim the 100-meter freestyle, the 100-meter backstroke and the 4×50-meter medley relay at the Games.
Widener, 20, will be making her first trip to the USA Games. She got her start in Special Olympics at 7 years old in the Young Athletes Program and competed in track before switching her focus to swimming. Widener is a graduate of Cooper High School where she was a member of the school’s swim team. Widener will compete in the 100-meter breaststroke, 100-meter individual medley and the 4×50-meter medley relay in Minneapolis.
Revay, 50, will be joining Team Kentucky for his second USA Games. He played in the 18-hole Individual Stroke Play event at the first USA Games in Iowa in 2006, placing 4th in his flight. He will play in the 9-hole Individual Stroke Play event in 2026. Revay has been a Special Olympics athlete for 30 years. He has competed in nearly every sport that the program offers. On the track, Revay was a regular in the pentathlon – a grueling one-day, five-event competition – for many years and won it several times.
In addition to his USA Games experience, Revay played golf at the 1999 Special Olympics World Summer Games in North Carolina, claiming the silver medal in the Tournament’s top flight. Revay also competed at the 1995 world Games, winning a gold medal in soccer with a team from Northern Kentucky. Chris has also competed in several National Invitational Golf Tournaments. At the 2000 National Invitational, he became the first player ever to record a hole in one in an official Special Olympics competition.
He is a Special Olympics Kentucky Athlete Ambassador and works at St. Elizabeth Hospital in Edgewood.
Hewitt, 29, will be competing in the USA Games for the first time. He has been involved in Special Olympics for 11 years competing in softball, bowling, flag football and soccer in addition to basketball. He is the only Northern Kentuckian on the Unified basketball team. The rest of the team is based out of Louisville. He was also selected for the Louisville City FC Unified Soccer team that was announced on May 16 and will begin competition later this year. Hewitt is a graduate of Special Olympics Kentucky’s Athlete Leadership Program and serves as an Athlete Ambassador. He works at Kroger in Independence.
Ogden’s athletes have won 15 medals including four golds in her three cycles as the swimming coach. The 2022 Special Olympics Kentucky Coach of the Year, Ogden was also selected as the Special Olympics USA Head Swimming Coach for the 2023 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Berlin. She has been a Special Olympics coach for 19 years but has been working with individuals with intellectual disabilities for nearly 40 years. She heads the Northern Kentucky Dolphins Special Olympics swimming program and serves on the Special Olympics Kentucky Swimming Sport Development Committee. In addition to Special Olympics coaching, Ogden has also coached the Ludlow/Bromley swim and dive team, the St. Agnes School track and field team and the St. Agnes School fifth grade volleyball team in Fort Wright. She is the Senior Executive Assistant in the Development Department at Children’s Hospital in Cincinnati.
Team Kentucky will gather before the USA Games on Thursday, June 18, at the Courtyard by Marriott on Phillips Lane in Louisville, where the team will stay before departing for the airport at 4:30 am the next morning. Their flight will leave Louisville at 7:25.
Team Kentucky will return to Louisville on Sunday, June 27. They will be scheduled to land at 8:00 pm
Special Olympics Kentucky will send 37 athletes, eight Unified partners, 18 coaches, two caddies and one adult mentor to the Games. Kentucky athletes will compete in artistic gymnastics, bocce, bowling, flag football, golf, swimming, track and field and – for the second consecutive USA Games – Unified basketball. Athletes representing 19 different counties are on the rosters, including the first athletes ever to represent Muhlenberg, Spencer and Washington Counties at the USA Games. In addition to the sports events, Team Kentucky will include a trio participating in the Youth Leadership Experience for the third time.
You can follow Team Kentucky at the USA Games at soky.org/teamkentucky or via any of Special Olympics Kentucky’s social media channels.
For more information about Team Kentucky or about the USA Games, contact Special Olympics Kentucky VP of Communications and External Relations Mark Buerger at 502-695-8222 or mbuerger@soky.org.
The 2026 Special Olympics USA Games will take place from June 20-26. They will include more than 3,000 athletes and 1,500 coaches representing all 50 states. The event will be supported by a dedicated team of 10,000 volunteers.
These are the sixth USA Games in Special Olympics history. Past Games were held in 2006 in Ames, Iowa; 2010 in Lincoln, Neb.; in 2014 in New Jersey; 2018 in Seattle, Wash., and 2022 in Orlando, Fla.
Special Olympics is the world’s largest program of sports training and competition for children and adults with intellectual disabilities. Participation in competitive events is open to all individuals eight years of age or older. Training and competition in local, area, state, and national programs is offered year-round in Kentucky in 15 sports. In addition to its traditional sports competitions, Special Olympics also offers early childhood programming through the Young Athletes Program and medical screenings though the Healthy Athletes Initiative. Special Olympics Kentucky began as a one-day event in Louisville in 1970 and has expanded to serve more than 11,300 athletes statewide annually. Special Olympics celebrated the 55th Anniversary of the global movement in 2023.
# # #
Mark Buerger
VP of Communications and External Relations
Special Olympics Kentucky
105 Lakeview Ct.
Frankfort, KY 40601
(o) 502-695-8222
(c) 859-338-6075
www.soky.org
Facebook: www.fb.com/sokentucky
Twitter: @sokentucky
Instagram: @so_kentucky
