Stacey Saunders said she was coming home with a medal “one way or another.”
The Pictou County native came home with three of them – two gold and a bronze – from the national Special Olympic games earlier this month in Antigonish.
“To me, I am an inspiration to bigger women and men,” she told The News on Sunday, as Saunders and the three other Pictou County athletes (Evan Sharpe, Lucy Rogers and Kara Scott – all of them winners of at least one medal) met with media at the Pictou County Wellness Centre.
“They are like, ‘oh, I can’t do that’, but guess what, get off your butt and do it because I did it. I lost over 43 pounds in the last six months for training.”
Saunders went through some intense training to prepare for the Games, augmenting her regularly scheduled workouts by training with her brother. She wanted it badly, and was willing to put in the work to achieve it.
It’s too soon to know if Saunders will qualify for the World Special Olympic games, scheduled for next spring (we’ll find out within the next couple of weeks or so) but even if this is far as she can go, Saunders came a long, long way.
High fives, to all of them.
• In the last 14 months, American golfer Brooks Koepka has won three major title: two U.S. Opens and a PGA Championship and yet, only hardcore golf fans would know he is. This past weekend, he held off a hard-charging Tiger Woods and everyone else on Sunday to win the PGA. Had Phil Mickelson done that, we’d never hear the end of it.
Tiger is in his 40s now and after all his injuries and personal battles, he’s become a sentimental favourite. Even I root for him these days, and I used to think he was an obnoxious, type A bore. (I know what you’re thinking. Hell, I can almost hear you saying it.)
Tiger smiles more often and seems more relaxed than he used to, even with his dominant days behind him, but what does Brooks Koepka have to do to get some love?
Non-Sports Thoughts of the Week:
• One can’t help but have a grudging admiration for renowned Nova Scotia lawyer Joel Pink, who stood in front of a judge last week and argued that his client – convicted killer Christopher Garnier – is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) due to the murder he committed, and so should have his sentenced reduced. You have to be a good actor to say that in a courtroom with a straight face.
I’d feel stressed too, if I had to live with the realization that I killed someone, disposed of her body in a green bin and now have a long prison sentence ahead of me.
Yeah, that would stress anybody out.
It’s likely that most people are tired of hearing about Garnier and think he should do his time quietly, so the family of the victim (Stellarton native Catherine Campbell) can do their best to move on.
• If you’ve ever been sleep-deprived for reasons that aren’t important, the last thing you want at 9 a.m. is to turn on the radio and hear AC/DC’s music bludgeoning you through the boom box speakers. Geez, it’s like a bloody jackhammer.
The boys from Down Under are legendary, but they can also give you a pounding headache when your mood isn’t right.
Kevin Adshade is a writer with The News. His column appears each week.
