The Newport board of education recognized student Marty Varias this week for his gold medal-winning participation in the Special Olympics Kentucky Winter Games.
The 14-year old 8th grader at Newport Intermediate School competed in ski events at Perfect North Slopes in Indiana, though he had never previously used skis competitively before.
Varias received coaching in the sport for just a day and a half and went on to win a gold medal in one event during the January 24 and 25 games.
He also won a silver medal in another event.
“He is very competitive,” said Varias’s mother, Sharon Bresser. “He wanted to win. I tried to tell him he is new at this, he might not win, but he believed he could win, and he did.”
School board member Aaron Sutherland said that he reached out to Newport special education director Lisa Swanson to find out of there were any students interested in the Special Olympics. Swanson contacted Varias’s mother because Swanson knew of Varias’s enjoyment of sports.
“Marty does better when the sport is not necessarily a team sport,” Bresser said. “Like swimming, he won gold three years in a row, in backstroke and freestyle. He is on a team, but he competes by himself. When he is in the water, the sensory overload is not intense, and that is important for autism. Skiing seems to be more like swimming for him, and he said he loves it.”
Swanson thanked Varias’s parents, Bresser and Chris Varias, as well as Sutherland, and others who supported Varias’s efforts.
In other business, it was noted that there are 414 students in the district participating in Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library program, which mails books to students’ homes.
