Great Outdoors - Aiming for Athens

Blenheim swimmer Adam Shatford wants gold at the Special Olympics in Greece. By Craig Sisterson
Lately when longtime Marlborough Special Olympics swim coach Jenny Wills arrives at the local Aquatic Centre on a weekday evening, she may find one athlete already gliding back and forth through the water, lap after lap – unable to wait until their scheduled training session starts. The pinnacle of Special Olympics sport, the World Summer Games (held once every four years) may be a year away, but 24-year-old Adam Shatford’s love for swimming and determination to succeed already have him spending extra hours in the pool each week.

Being selected for the World Summer Games, and getting to represent New Zealand on the global stage, would be “awesome,” says Shatford, who first learned to swim thanks to lessons at CCS when he was “seven or eight”. He did “really, really well in CCS” as a swimmer, says his mother Sheryl, and then when he got too old for CCS in his late teens, “that’s when he got introduced to Special Olympics, and he’s never looked back”.

A couple of years earlier he had suffered a severe brain injury when he was hit by a bus outside Rapaura School, leaving him with some intellectual and developmental disabilities. These extra hurdles haven’t stopped him from developing into a tremendous athlete, however. The New Zealand team for the World Summer Games has not yet been selected, but Shatford is certainly a strong contender to make his dream trip to Greece, having won the 100m freestyle and 100m medley, and claimed third place in the 50m butterfly and 4x25m medley relay, at the most recent National Summer Games last December. “I’d hate to think how many medals Adam has got [over the years],” says Sheryl. “They’re tucked away in his bedroom, but every now and then he gets them out and takes a look. He loves the training, but when it comes to competition, that’s when he can really dig deep.”

Shatford has also trained and competed with local able-bodied swim squads in the past, performing well, and credits his former Marlborough Boys’ College swim coach Richard Norton with teaching him each stroke. Shatford says he enjoys butterfly, breast-stroke, and freestyle, but isn’t a fan of backstroke (although he has to do it in the medleys). “I just like swimming,” he says. “It’s been my favourite sport since I started it.”

Sheryl says becoming involved in Special Olympics is “the best thing [parents] could ever do for a child, if they’ve got a disability. It really boosts their confidence… and they’re amazing athletes.”

Along with his own training, Shatford helps other Special Olympics swimmers in Blenheim. “I help them with their stroke development, and help them just to keep going really,” he says. He hopes that by passing on some of what he’s been taught by the likes of Wills and Norton, he’ll inspire the swimmers coming through. And he has some advice for everyone, whether they have a disability or not: “go hard and you’ll achieve results … and enjoy yourself”.

For more information about Special Olympics programmes, events, and opportunities near to you, or how to help, go to www.specialolympics.org.nz