Three Kentuckians have been selected to take part in the 2009 Special Olympics World Winter Games as part of Team USA. Two athletes and one coach, all from Louisville, will make the trip to Boise, Idaho, for the Games which will be held Feb. 6-13. Athletes Jeannie Luersen and Kelly McCormick were selected to compete as part of Team USA in February. Luersen will compete in figure skating. McCormick will be a alpine skier. Long-time Special Olympics volunteer Lorene Caudill has been named to Team USA as a figure skating coach.
This will be the second consecutive World Winter Games for Luersen, who won a gold medal at the 2005 World Winter Games in Nagano, Japan. This is the first World Games of any kind for McCormick.
Caudill has been involved with Special Olympics since she founded the Special Olympics Kentucky Ice Skating program in 1976. This will also be her second consecutive trip to the World Winter Games as she also served as a figure skating coach in Nagano in 2005.
The group will begin the home stretch toward their World Games experience with a trip to Team USA Training Camp Dec. 3-7 in Copper Mountain, Colo.
The 2009 World Winter Games will be held February 6-13 in Boise, Idaho. The Games mark the return of the Special Olympics World Games to U.S. soil for the first time since 2001. World Games since the 2001 Winter Games in Anchorage, Alaska, have been held in Dublin, Ireland; Nagano, Japan and Shanghai, China.
The 2009 World Winter Games are expected to bring together more than 3,000 athletes from 85 countries to compete in five sports.
For more information about how you can support Jeannie and Kelly’s World Games efforts please contact Trish Mazzoni at 800-633-7403 or 502-695-8222 or via e-mail at tmazzoni@soky.org.
