One of the most highly anticipated sports at the Estevan 2016 Saskatchewan Summer Games is the swimming competition and that goes for both its athletes and its fans.
“The most exciting part will be to go in the evening when it’s the finals,” said Marj Walton, executive director of Swim Saskatchewan. “I guess I’m biased because I work for the sport of swimming, but swimming is a fairly exciting sport because you know who won. The guns goes, somebody hits the wall first, so it’s easy to tell.”
The swimming competition at the Estevan Summer Games runs July 27 to 30 with the eight district teams of eight male and eight female athletes hitting the water at the RM of Estevan Aquatic Centre for constant racing activity in the final three days of the event. Each of these swimmers is allowed to compete in six of the 17 competitions which include varied distance races in free stroke, back stroke, breast stoke, butterfly, individual medley, free relay and medley relay.
There will also be seven Special Olympics events at the competition, which culminates on the final afternoon with a 4 x 50-metre integrated relay race involving teams of two Special Olympics athletes and two able bodied swimmers. A total of 16 Special Olympics athletes representing six districts will be competing in the swimming event at the Games.
Darlene MacQuarrie, director of programs with Special Olympics Saskatchewan, said their athletes have been competing in select events at the Saskatchewan Summer and Winter Games for a number of years. She said the 16 swimmers who will be participating in the Estevan Games vary from some competitors who have attended a Games before and others who will be entering their first major sporting event.
“Our athletes are looking forward to going,” said MacQuarrie. “They love to travel and like going to different competitions and the fans, their friends and family...usually attend and support our athletes.”
