I Got It!! !!

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I went to another doctor today to have him sign off on my Equine Therapy Rider exam form. I was so angry at my regular doctor that I went to one that I had known five years ago. He signed my Equine Therapy form and then he went ahead and signed my Special Olympics Application too. He knows me well enough to know that I am on the Spectrum and he had no problem signing the form. So now I just need to mail it in and I can compete. Yipee!!

Hooray! Congratulations Skibum, that's very good news I always knew we'd see you in the Olympics at some point

Congratulations!

Thank you guys!

Excellent, Skibum! What will you compete in?

Right on!

I'm glad you finally got it! Those are really great news, skibum!

skibum,
although will be in one SO club will not be able to compete in the US national SO as its only for people who have intelectual disability, however after the last time we spoke on this had looked it up as did not understand how their local and national rules coud differ so much and found there were several special olympics club chapters that allow people without ID in,surprised at that as they wont have enough people to make up the HF classes,they cant put HFAs vs people of a lower mental capacity as it was the reason the SO was set up in the first place to give fair access to sports competition.

they dont allow HFA as joining criteria in the UK and unlike the US it also costs a lot of money per session,am planning on moving to a different special olympics club which offers swimming and stopping horse riding altogether although woud love to just be around horses.

a big myth a lot of people seem to have about the SO is that when a person becomes an athlete,they are automaticaly taking part in the national special olympics,most SO athletes only compete at a local or regional level.

Congratulations!! !! !

Thank you everyone. I don't know actually know if I will be competing in anything since there might not be enough HFA;s in my local are that are involved so that I could compete in anything. I was told many times by the SO rep that I would always be welcomed and wanted and not matter how good you are your sport or not matter how HFA you are, as long as you meet the requirement and I do by being Aspie, you are completely wanted and welcomed to compete. I don't know how the details work but if, like Kingdomofrats mentioned, there are not enough HFA's I won't be able to compete. But I guess I just wanted to be welcomed and know that my Aspergers actually had a place in real life where it would not be rejected. So maybe just getting the form signed might be enough. I can mail it and my name will officially be in the SO database that that alone will be good enough for me to feel accepted.

Maybe you could compete in another sport, that way you won't have a such an advantage over the others who are likely to be less coordinated, etc. I'm guessing whatever sport you were in, it would be a blast.

Don't feel too bad, I'm so uncoordinated, no telling what they'd think was wrong with me if I tried to ski. I think looking better is the better option.

You belong here! Big hugs! I guess this means I don't get to be the skaddy though.

Thank you Woz.

Congratulations, that's very interesting, I didn't know such therapy existed.

Thank you Acedia.
Yeah, it's really great. It looks like everything is going to work out fantastic after all. I am really happy. I had a long talk with the SO rep today. She called me and we talked for two hours. She explained to me how it all works. She said that we actually have lot of HFA athletes in our area. And the way it works is that they record how you do in the practices as far as gender, age, and ability and they keep your practice results on record so that when they match you for competition they match you with people who are as similar to you as they can so that you have an even and competitive playing field. That way they can have all levels of athletes and HFA's can compete in SO as well as LFA's. She told me that before SO was only open to people who were severely mentally handicapped and that is still the view that people have today sometimes. But they changed it because many HFA's are not able to do well for whatever reason in regular NT events so there was no place for them. So they set it up this way to make if fair for all ID life impaired athletes no matter how HF or LF you are and no matter how good you are at your sport. So as long as you have are recognized by a qualified doctor that you have an ID that truly impairs your daily life and he signs that form you can compete as an athlete and you will have a fair and competitive field. And it is all 100% free to every single athlete.

That is why you have to sign in the application that you understand that one of the rules is that you in competition you can't put out more effort than you did in practice. If you do more than 25% better in your competition than you did in practice you are disqualified. And unlike what Kingdomofrats mentioned in the UK, they keep everything 100% free for all of the athletes including all the gear and lessons and everything. You can participate in as many sports as you like and compete in as many sports as you like. This particular SO rep has and Autistic child and he participates and competes in every single sport in our area. I believe our area has 13 sports broken down in to summer, fall, and winter. Once SO receives my medical release form in the mail they will send me a list of sports in my area with the practice times and and venues and all I have to do is show up. And my husband can participate as an athlete in the sports where they have the unified teams, teams of NT's mixed with disabled athletes. He would have to pay for that though. Or he could volunteer as a coach and helper for free in any sport he likes so he could be a helper in whatever sport I compete in so that we could do it together.

So I will definitely do alpine ski racing as you all could have guessed since that is done at my local home mountain anyway. I might also do kayaking. I don't know what other sports we have in our area until I see the list but if they have ice skating I might try that too. That would be a brand new sport for me. They don't have cycling though which I would have loved. They have it in my state but not in my local area. I might also do Equestrian since I believe they have that local for us as well. And since I am a horse girl and am doing Equine therapy as well that would also be right up my alley.

But the rep also told me to check out Loretta Claiborne. She is an amazing HFA SO athlete whom Eunice Shriver had personally taken an interest in. I will look her up later and probably post some links.

But this is all turning out great. It is such a good feeling to finally have my Aspieness appreciated in real life and for something really powerful and encouraging to come of it.

I also mentioned WP to the SO rep since her kids are on the Spectrum so hopefully she will check us out. She was really excited about us since she had never heard of us before.

So Scaddy up Woz! Keep your pockets ready for powerbars!

Congratulations, skibum! I am so happy for you.