Special Olympians set for festivities Snow sports highlight activities during Winter Games at Sugarloaf/USA

While football fans may focus their attention at a certain big game this weekend, Maine’s Special Olympians will stage their own kind of “Super Bowl” when the state Winter Games get under way at Sugarloaf/USA in Carrabassett Valley on Sunday.

“The state Winter Games and the state Summer Games are the championship football game and the championship basketball game [for the athletes],” said Lisa Bird, the director of public relations for Maine Special Olympics.

“This is the highlight of their training schedule,” Bird said. “This is the highlight of their social calendar, the highlight of their year.”

In all, 850 people, including 493 athletes from 73 Maine communities, will converge on Sugarloaf to compete in Alpine and Nordic skiing events, skating, snowshoeing, and snowboarding.

Special Olympics is a year-round athletic training and competition program offering Olympic-style sports to people with mental retardation. Maine – the first state to hold winter Games – has been doing so for 31 years. The last 19 editions of the Winter Games have been held at Sugarloaf.

Athletes and coaches check in on Sunday afternoon and enjoy some social events that evening before competition starts in earnest on Monday morning.

Some finals will be staged on Monday, but most will be held on Tuesday.

Among the marquee events are Monday’s opening ceremonies, banquet of champions, torchlight parade, fireworks, and dance; and Tuesday’s championship finals and closing ceremonies.

In addition, athletes will be able to take part in snowmobile rides, sleigh rides, and snowcat rides, and a free swim is scheduled.

“We’re an athletic program and we want to emphasize that, but there’s so much more to it, with the dance and banquets,” Bird said. “There’s so much more to it than just the competition.”

Bird said snowboarding was a popular addition at the 2000 Winter Games, and will be contested at this year’s World Games in Anchorage, Alaska, in March.

Eight Mainers will be making the trip to Alaska as part of the U.S. team.

“The athletes that were involved loved it,” Bird said. “I think as a result of that and them going back and telling their teammates and telling their friends about it, it will be much more popular this year.”