Lindomar wins gold
at Special Olympics
By Marvin A. Hokstam
SHANGHAI, China--St. Maarten’s team at Special Olympics is still bringing home the gold, it turned out yesterday.
Lindomar Carvon, the male intellectually challenged athlete, took first place in his class during shotput finals, earning the island a gold medal. It took some time to sink in that he had won, but when it did, it was a sight to behold: a huge grin suddenly formed on his face and he jammed his right hand to the sky, the index finger protruding upward … he had won. He was “Number One!”
The other members of St. Maarten’s delegation were equally, if not more, elated with the unexpected win. “No one expected it, because we thought he had not placed that high up during the preliminaries,” St. Maarten Special Olympics Foundation President Angela Richards said.
It turned out though that Lindomar, whose gait is affected by his impairment, had placed well: “When we thought they were having preliminaries, they were in fact arranging the competing athletes in their appropriate classes, according to their handicaps. Lindomar belonged in the class of people with a double handicap and he simply was the better athlete there during the finals,” trainer Les Brown explained.
In hindsight, Lindomar’s win shouldn’t come as a surprise, because for an athlete with his disability his preparation was impeccable. A true showman, before every performance, he stretches at length before he takes the heavy metal ball. He powders his hands, blows off excess powder, makes a cross and then shoots. His gold win yesterday was assured after his first of four shots.
St. Maarten has now captured four medals during the World Summer Games that wrap up on Thursday: Lindomar’s gold, Linda Richardson’s two silver medals for the 100-metre sprint and long jump, and Lindomar’s fifth place medal for the 100-metre sprint (not fourth as previously reported).
The athletes return to St. Maarten on the Air France flight on Saturday and Richards repeated her call for a hero’s welcome. “It would be no more than prudent, even more with this surprise golden medal,” the First Lady said.
More than 10,500 athletes from 165 countries are competing in the games that began on Tuesday, October 2, and wrap up this Thursday. With only two athletes competing, St. Maarten’s delegation has one of the smallest teams, first-timers from the Caribbean along with Haiti, Belize and Montserrat.
