Gold and Silver for Kiwi Athletes in Korea

Special Olympics New Zealand is continuing its success with a raft of new medals at the 10th Special Olympics World Winter Games. Snowboarders Morgan James (Special Olympics Central Otago) and Brittney McKenzie (Special Olympics South Canterbury) added two new medals to their respective tallies in the Snowboard Intermediate Slalom competition on 3 February. Morgan won a gold medal in the race (adding to her gold medal won in the Giant Slalom last week), while Brittney won a silver medal in the race (adding to her bronze medal won in the Giant Slalom). 

The medals have kept coming on the Alpine skiing course too. Troy Rangi (Special Olympics North Harbour) won a silver medal in the Alpine skiing Advanced Giant Slalom, Katrina Hewett (Special Olympics North Otago) won silver in the Intermediate Giant Slalom, Amy Mackres (Special Olympics North Harbour) won a bronze in the Intermediate Giant Slalom, Nick Fyfe (Special Olympics Hutt Valley) won a bronze medal in the Alpine Skiing Giant Slalom, and Nick Latz (Special Olympics North Canterbury) won a bronze medal in the Alpine Skiing Intermediate Giant Slalom. 

“This is a tremendous achievement by all our athletes. We have had some difficult weather and icy conditions over the past couple of days so they did really well. Many of our athletes have been upgraded into more advanced divisions, which has added to the challenge, but they have raced admirably,” says Brian Benn, Head of Delegation. 

The team has one day left of competition with the Alpine Skiing finals and awards for the Slalom, and divisioning and finals for the Snowboarding Super G. They will return to New Zealand (victorious) on Thursday 7 February (Auckland International Airport, Cathay Pacific flight arrival: 1.10pm). 

Click here for updates on the Games, race results, and images  

Image: Morgan and Brittney won Gold and Silver in the Intermediate Slalom at the Special Olympics World Winter Games. Credit: Bob Williams