Special Olympics: Computer Programmer Competes ! !

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If abuse, harassment or bullying is being done by coaches to athletes, this needs exposure. Of course, who's going to believe the athlete, right? The coaches will cleverly defend themselves. However, there's a way to get this out there: Blogging. Have you ever thought of writing about your experiences? Be a trailblazer and write about it. This is how change gets made. Because once it's out there, the PARENTS will then start wondering if their own kid is getting pushed around or bullied in some way.

SPOL is a gigantic entity, and ALL huge entities (such as the Catholic church) have abuse going on. It's about numbers of people. When literally thousands of people are involved -- in any kind of organization -- there will always be abuse or bullying. It needs to be exposed.

There's a Deaf Olympics, which was originally called, quite incorrectly, "The International Silent Games".
I'm ineligible for that too.

SO would be a great way for you to get powerlifting coaching as long as the coach is competent. That is another thing you have to be careful of with SO is the competence of the coaches. Some of the coaches are phenomenal in their knowledge of the sports they are coaching and some have coached very high level athletes mainstream and some of them have even been high level athletes themselves. But this is another area of SO that is completely inconsistent. Some of the coaches are just parents of athletes and are just coaching their sport because no one else was willing to do the job and they barely know anything about the sport that they are coaching. So you have to be very careful especially with a sport like powerlifting because the risk for severe spinal injury is so great. But if the program where you live has an excellent powerlifting SO program, than definitely go for it.

You won't have an Autism only competition but in SO you cannot compete against anyone who is not close to your ability no matter what their diagnosis is. There cannot be a greater than 15% variance in ability within a group that is competing against each other. This is called levelling. There are also only up to eight people allowed in any competitive group. So the difference in ability between the eight people who are competing against each other cannot be greater or less than 15%. So you will never compete against someone who has no possible chance of competing against you. Levelling is a concept that is exclusive to SO. No other sport organization has that. That is how they keep it fair no matter how severely disabled someone might be. For example, Paralympics does not have levelling. So if I were to compete in a Paralympic ski race, I would be competing against every female who has use of two arms and two legs. It would not matter if the person was forty years younger than me, it would not matter if my functioning ability was extremely severe compared to someone else's, and it would not matter if I finished the time trial ten minutes behind everyone else. Everyone is in the same boat. The only designation in paralympic ski racing is whether someone has use of all limbs or just some limbs and whether the person is in a sitski, (wheelchair ski) or not. Other than that, it's a free for all.

In Special Olympics, they try to match you as closely as they can by age groups, and they match you as closely as possible by ability. So it's as fair as it can possibly be. And if there is no one at all close to you, you compete against the book. For example, in figure skating, there are athletes who are absolutely incredible. If they find that no one else is able to be close enough to their ability to compete against them, they compete against the book which means, the written standard set by the governing body of the sport for how they should be performing at that level. So an athlete competing against the book is not guaranteed a gold even if no one else is competing against him or her. His performance will be judged against the standard of how proficiently each skill should be done at that level with whatever the allowances are for disabled athletes. So it can be much more difficult to compete against the book than when you are competing against other athletes. So when SO is done correctly and if you are lucky enough to be in a chapter that does not have abusive coaches and that has coaches that know their stuff, it's absolutely incredible.

Unfortunately for me, I had to resign as an athlete in my state this year because of the abusive coaches and so I no longer have the opportunity to do a lot of sports that I love. But I am still an athlete in SO equestrian and I travel to my neighboring state for that. The equestrian coaches in my neighboring state are wonderful so I am very grateful to be able to continue my horse riding and competing in equestrian events with them. But if the powerlifting situation in your area's SO program is safe, I highly recommend that you do it. You will love it especially if you have a coach that is really excellent.

Yes. You are absolutely right. I have been giving lots of thought to doing just that. I am still trying to see if I can find a lawyer who will help me first because if I do expose it, it will like an all out bloody war. The consequences could be very severe and my mental health might not survive it. And a lot of it will end up being my word against theirs and I have already been warned by them that they will make sure that I am destroyed if I try to expose them. So I have to really be careful.

I'll bet, though, that if you proceed, others will follow suit. This phenomenon is well-known with sexual assault cases. One woman speaks up, and suddenly, a dozen more come forward. It's kind of like a building that's on fire. A bunch of people are standing on the third story ledge, with firefighters below telling them to jump while they hold a safety net. Everyone's afraid to jump. Finally, someone jumps. Suddenly, everyone else jumps one by one.

Also, since you no longer do SPOL, how is it that the coaches could "destroy" you? If they know where you live, have they made threats? Otherwise, it's all talk. It's not like they could come to your place of employment and get you fired, or if you work from home, destroy your business.

I'm female by the way (my talk of powerlifting and discus throwing may have people thinking I'm a man).

I knew you were a woman. A know quite few women powerlifters and discus throwers. I will definitely consider exposing the scandal. I am still in SO, just not in my state. I am still an SO athlete in my neighboring state. The scandal happened with coaches in my state. I am mostly concerned with the emotional impact that any blowup could have on me. I am particularly vulnerable when it comes to emotional and psychological impact and because of the particular vulnerabilities that I have in those areas, a huge confrontation could end up being fatal for me. So I have to consider that. The people at SO in my state know this about me and I would not put it past them to cause such a traumatic experience that it could end my life. But you are right about the domino effect that exposing something like this could have. If I could be protected, it would be an easier decision.