Petone skier’s special medal haul
After a successful trip to Austria, skier Rebecca Heath has returned to Petone with two medals around her neck.
Heath has just returned from the winter Special Olympics in Austria with a silver and bronze to her name.
She came second in the final division F11 AS Alpine Intermediate Giant Slalom event with a time of 2m55.46s and third in the final division F06 AS Alpine Intermediate Super G event, finishing in 1m59.01s.
Divisions in Special Olympics competitions are structured so athletes compete with other athletes of similar ability in equitable divisions.
In all sports, there are special rules and adaptions that make participation fairer, safer and more competitive for athletes of all abilities.
Heath, a teacher aide at Wellington High School, says this was her first time representing New Zealand internationally and she didn’t expect to bring home a medal, let alone two.
‘‘I wasn’t expecting anything. It was hard, it was challenging,’’ she says. ’’There’s a lot better skiers than I was.’’
Snow doesn’t often fall in Petone, but Heath only made one trip to Mt Ruapehu and two trips to Snowplanet in Auckland for training.
She made up for the lack of time on the slopes in the gym.
‘‘I work as a teacher aide so after work I go to the gym and then come home,’’ she says. ’’I’m full-on.’’
Heath has cerebral palsy, a neurological disease that can severely disable a person’s muscles.
Exercise not only helps her keep in shape, but also stops her muscles from cramping up.
The New Zealand Special Olympic team was made up of 13 athletes: three snowboarders and 10 skiers.
They left New Zealand on March 8. The competition, in Austria’s second-largest city Graz and the small town of Schladming, ran March 18-25.
‘‘It was amazing,’’ Heath says. ’’It was a bit draining when we got there but we got used to the environment.’’
The mountain in Schladming was ‘‘Quite big, bigger than Mt Ruapehu’’, she says.
She plans to frame both her medals and race number, which will act as motivation for her next competition.
Heath will now switch her attention to her other love: swimming. She has already qualified for the National Summer Games in Wellington late this year.