Cheering kids inspire Paralympic athletes

FORT KENT – Steve Cook, a member of the U.S. Disabled Nordic Ski Team competing at the International Paralympic Committee’s Nordic Skiing World Championships, loves the kids who have come to cheer on the athletes.

For the second time this week, the stands at the 10th Mountain Division Lodge at the Maine Winter Sports Center were filled with hundreds of kids from schools in Fort Kent, St. Francis, Madawaska, Fort Fairfield and Frenchville.

They cheered, yelled, chanted, rang bells and wound up hand-held noisemakers for the athletes, and it didn’t matter what country they were from, nor what the competition was.

On Tuesday, an estimated 550 kids had come from Presque Isle, Mapleton, Fort Fairfield and St. Francis. They were also noisemakers, cheering for each and every athlete in the stadium.

Others of their age – from the 10th Mountain Division Dance Troupe and students at the Jazz It Up Studio at Fort Kent – cheered as well, and music blared into the stadium.

One techno song used Thursday morning, “Ole, Ole,” a Spanish song, had kids and adults dancing and singing all over the stadium, even in the lodge above the competition.

The estimated 560 kids didn’t only fill the bleachers, they made their way to knolls surrounding the stadium, getting different views of the trails and athletes. From different vantage points some started cheering even before others could see the athletes coming.

“We all love it,” Cook said after completing his 5-kilometer cross-country race. “It doesn’t matter to them what country we are from, they cheer for everyone.

“We don’t usually have a lot of people at our competitions, and this is good exposure for the kids and us,” he said. “It, the cheers, pump us up.”

Even if the athletes don’t understand the words of the cheers, they like the noise, the kids jumping up and down and the air of friendship.

“Ca nous encourage [It encourages us],” Franck Paget of France said in his native language. “They push us beyond our limits.

“C’est important pour nous autres [It’s important for us],” he continued. “Ca bouge [It moves].”

A Chinese coach, who spoke no English, understood when a reporter pointed to the stands, the knolls and the kids.

He smiled, pointed at them and clapped his hands; his face lighted up in a big smile.

“They make for a wonderful experience,” Shauna Maria White of Canada said after her 2.5-kilometer sit-ski competition. “They bring a fresh atmosphere to the competitions.

“They help athletes do their best,” she said. “They instill in us a drive to do our best.”

Katie Rogowiec of Poland agreed. “They help us do more,” she said. “It’s like they give us a push to go further, to work harder.

“It’s nice to see children smiling and cheering,” she said. “It is very, very nice to have them there.”

Katie was also moved Tuesday by a woman in the crowd who pronounced Polish names the way they are pronounced in Poland.

“I heard my name in Polish when I entered the stadium,” she said. “It was incredible.

“A woman, who I was told had Polish roots, she knew how to pronounce our names and that was very nice to hear far away from home.”