Well, it's been almost a month since my last post. We've been neck deep in stuff almost nonstop. Jason has had two competitions since my last post, and I wanted to talk about both of them.
The first one was on October 1st, in Sebastian, FL. It was the Florida State Aquatics Championships for Special Olympics. Jason had qualified for this event back in late August, when he finished in first place in three events. He swam the same three events this time around as well. His first event was the 50 meter freestyle. When he got up on the starting block, he was complaining that the block was too hot. He wanted the volunteer that was with him to splash some water on it to cool it off. The guy misunderstood him and thought he was afraid of being up on the block. He kept trying to tell Jason that it was ok to start off the side of the pool, but Jason was telling him that he had to start off the block. (Sidenote: the City team teaches him to always start off the block, because their competitions don't allow you to start anywhere else other than off the block.) Then the guy felt he had to hold Jason's arm, still thinking he was afraid. We were all yelling at him to let Jason go, because he couldn't get set properly. The guy released him one second before the start of the race, so Jason just dove awkwardly, not getting set comfortably. He gained speed in the water, and passed several people. He finished in second place by less than a second, earning him a silver medal.
The second event was the 50 meter breaststroke. This time, we sent him to the starting block with a bottle of water, so he could cool off the block himself. He was neck and neck almost the whole race with someone, but got a boost the last few strokes. He finished in first place, earning a gold medal. His last event was a 4x50 meter freestyle relay. The other races the team swam, they had a set order they would swim in, with Jason being third in the water. For some reason, the order got changed for this race, with Jason leading off, instead of going third. The change in order affected all four of them, and they finished third, earning a bronze medal.
As proud as we were with what he accomplished that weekend, the following weekend was probably even more impressive and inspirational to us. On October 8th and 9th, Jason was scheduled to swim five events in his first ever meet for Sunrise Swimming, his original team. These were not special needs kids he would be competing against now. Now, it was "regular" kids that had been swimming competitively since 8 years old in some cases. Jason's 13 now, and just started swimming competitively this year. Needless to say, our expectations were adjusted accordingly. All we wanted was for him to get through it. Just swim. If he could avoid getting disqualified in all of his events, that would be a bonus. We really weren't asking for a whole lot. Unfortunately, his Saturday races (50 meter freestyle and 50 meter breaststroke) were canceled due to lightning in the area.
That left three events on Sunday. His first race was the 50 meter backstroke. He had never swum this in a race before, so we were very nervous as to how he would do on this. He finished with a time of 1:02.31 (unofficial) which was last place by 14 seconds. None of us cared about what place it was, though, as we were just ecstatic that he didn't get disqualified and hung in with them. His coach gave him some tips for next time, but was very proud of how he did. Next was the 100 meter breaststroke. He finished in last place by four seconds, but his time was not announced because he was disqualified for an improper stroke. He brought his hands down to his hips, which is too far down. To his credit, he took the DQ in stride, did not get upset at all. He wasn't happy about it, but kept his cool. The official that disqualified him remembered us from other events that we volunteered at in previous years, so he was very careful in how he told him about the DQ. We found out the coaches talked to the officials prior to the start of the day, letting them know about Jason's autism and bipolar. It did NOT change how he was judged, it was simply a heads up in case Jason got riled up. His last event was the 100 meter freestyle. His unofficial time is 1:31.52 but the more impressive thing was that he did not finish last. He beat another guy by four seconds. Afterwards, his coach was very happy and impressed with Jason's performance. They said he had better times than they were expecting him to have. Another thing that stood out was that the head official made a point of telling Jason how well he had performed and that we should be proud of what he had accomplished. In all of the events we have volunteered at, I cannot recall a time where any official told a swimmer they had done well. That really got to us.
All in all, we are very happy and proud of how Jason did at both events, for different reasons. Both weekends were very emotional for us. We are thankful to a lot of people that helped us get through these last two weeks. He is finished with Special Olympics for this year, at least. However, he will be swimming again with Sunrise Swimming on November 5th and another one in December. The November meet will be at the Swimming Hall of Fame in Ft. Lauderdale, the December meet will be in Coral Springs, where Olympic swimmer Dara Torres trains. No matter what happens, as far as I'm concerned, Jason was a winner the minute he hit the water. There were a lot of people that told us this would never happen. We even told Jason that people were doubting whether or not he could do it. He did a great job in proving a lot of people wrong. There were a lot of tears, but they were good ones.
