Special Olympics offers new flag football, turbo jav events this year
This year's Special Olympics Michigan Summer Games, held from Thursday to Saturday, will feature some new events.
For the first time in SOMI history, a flag football expo will be held Thursday from 3:30 to 5 p.m. and Friday from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. at Kelly/Shorts Stadium.
Dan Ekonen, manager of volunteers and coaches’ education for SOMI, said the expo will introduce flag football to coaches and athletes as a potential sport in which they can compete.
“It will be the first time anyone from our program at Special Olympics Michigan has seen it,” he said.
Eight teams are coming from all across the state, Ekonen said. Each team can have up to 12 athletes, with five-on-five game play. Athletes participating in the expo will practice flag football skills and drills, and then play in actual scrimmages, he said.
SOMI will also introduce a new sport this year: Turbo Jav.
“Turbo Jav. (mini javelin) is an official competition this year,” said Kimberly Purdy, senior director of public relations and marketing for SOMI.
The mini javelin competition will be held on Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., south of Bennett Track.
The State Summer Games will also feature appearances from sports celebrities and pageant royalty, including former Detroit Lions T.J. Duckett and Tom Kanka and Miss Michigan Elizabeth Wertenberger. There will be a celebrity autograph signing on Friday from 3 to 4:30 p.m. at the Events Center Atrium.
Elizabeth Viele, the 2011 Inspirational Athlete of the Year, will run the last part of the Law Enforcement Torch Run. She will light the Flame of Hope at the opening ceremonies, which begin Thursday at 6:30 p.m. in Kelly/Shorts Stadium.
Viele, 27, from Dimondale, will be competing in gymnastics.
“I’m really excited to do it in front of people,” she said. “But I’m also nervous about lighting the torch.”
Nicholas Cross, the 2011 Spartan Stores Healthy Athlete of the Year, will lead the athlete oath at the opening ceremonies
“I’m a little nervous,” he said. “I haven’t done public speaking well before.”
Cross, 22 of Wayne, will be competing in aquatics. Deb Cross, Nicholas’ mother, said she was proud of her son.
“I am so excited to watch that,” she said. “I can’t wait.”
