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SALT LAKE CITY -- Exhausted after a week of competition, members of Utah's Special Olympic team were all smiles as they were greeted at Salt Lake International by friends and family Saturday.
They spent the last week competing in the USA National Games in Lincoln, Neb. Fifty-three of Utah's finest athletes participated on eight different teams and brought back some new neck wear as proof of their success.
Greg Kogan is member of the Utah gold medal basketball team.
Getting off another plane with a medal around his neck was John Castro -- he plays on the baseball team. He hit a grand slam with the bases loaded in the crucial game to capture the gold.
We took four swimmers to the games and they all did excellent. They all bested their times, all the way down for every event.
–Barry Hayden
The Special Olympics National Games got started last weekend with the opening ceremonies in Lincoln. It included 3,000 athletes from 50 states, and 1,000 coaches participated this year.
Eight-thousand volunteers helped make the games run smoothly, and an estimated 30,000 spectators cheered the athletes on.
"We took four swimmers to the games and they all did excellent," said aquatics coach Barry Hayden. "They all bested their times, all the way down for every event."
Getting the Special Olympians to the national games takes a special group of people: corporations or private pilots who own Cessna business jets. Every four years, pilots from all over the country fly the teams to the competitions and bring them back home at no charge.
Eight planes helped transport the Utah teams this year.
"These private airplanes are something else. The pilots are all great, and the companies that donate them are just fantastic," said Hayden. "[They] really make a big, big difference in what we can really do."
Closing ceremonies took place Friday night to wrap up the games. The next USA National Games for the Special Olympics will take place in 2014, and the location is still to be determined.
E-mail: kmccord@ksl.com
