Fayetteville's Sowers Excels During Special Olympics, Training

Fayetteville’s Sowers Excels During Special Olympics, Training

STAFF PHOTO SAMANTHA BAKER • @NWASAMANTHA Medals from the 2010 USA Games are kept in a glass case and hung on the wall in Sowers’ bedroom. “Canyon is probably the best swimmer in the state,” said David Thrift, Sower’s sprint triathlon partner.
STAFF PHOTO SAMANTHA BAKER • @NWASAMANTHA Medals from the 2010 USA Games are kept in a glass case and hung on the wall in Sowers’ bedroom. “Canyon is probably the best swimmer in the state,” said David Thrift, Sower’s sprint triathlon partner.

Canyon Sowers immediately said "yeah" when his mother asked if he wanted to compete in a triathlon.

"Do you know what a triathlon is?" Terri Audiss then asked.

"No."

But Sowers' desire to attend the 2014 USA Games, the Special Olympics national competition, overshadowed any doubt or fear. He's competed in bowling and weightlifting, and excels at swimming. He's collected hundreds of medals, mostly gold.

Sowers loves winning, and he trains with the intensity and dedication of any top athlete, said Terri Weir, Special Olympics Arkansas chief executive officer. He rides his bike more than five miles, takes two buses and walks more than a mile to reach the athletic club where he swims twice a week.

Arkansas took 86 athletes to Princeton, N.J. Sowers and his nondisabled partner, David Thrift, won gold medals Wednesday in the unified sprint triathlon, a 250-meter open water swim followed by a 10K bike ride and a 5K run.

"He's an inspiration to me. I've seen the progress he's made and his attitude," said Bruce Kelley, sprint triathlon coach. "Canyon has worked like any other Olympic athlete. He has worked hard from the beginning and continues to work hard.

"For me, it doesn't matter where he stands on that platform, he's already a gold medal winner," Kelley said. "But Canyon is the type of person where that's not good enough. He really wants to take the gold."

At first impression,"you would never know in a million years he has special needs," Audiss said of her son. But his diagnosis of pervasive developmental disorder sometimes limits what Sowers can do -- or what others think he can do.

Audiss noticed some potential developmental difficulties in the first years of Sowers' life, but nothing raised major concern. His different abilities became more pronounced when he entered school.

Her son struggles with his fine motor skills and receptive and expressive language the most, Audiss said. He spent his school years in special education classes, graduating from Point Loma High School in San Diego in 1997.

Sowers and his parents moved to Maui after graduation, where Audiss signed her son up for Special Olympics as a way to "help him learn to adjust, meet kids like him and to have something to do."

The family moved to Fayetteville in 2007 when Sowers' dad retired. Three years later, Sowers traveled to Nebraska for the 2010 USA Games and brought home gold, silver and bronze medals in swimming as a representative of Arkansas.

Sowers said he's enjoyed training for three events at once, adding he hasn't worked this hard "in a long time" to reach a goal.

He noted one aspect of his training he would change.

"Run a little bit more, start training earlier."

Audiss agreed running presents the greatest challenge.

"Biking and swimming is a breeze, but running? No," she said.

Thrift explained Sowers likes to run on his tiptoes. When Thrift and Kelley try to get him to stretch his legs out, he'll do it for a little bit, but then go back to his old form, Thrift said.

Long distances between his teammate and coach require Sowers to do much of his training alone, Kelley said. Thrift lives in Alma while Kelley lives in Batesville.

Sowers' father, Bill Audiss, helps monitor his workouts and progress, and at Northwest Athletic Club, his local gym, Lee Slusarek, owner and Special Olympics Arkansas director of powerlifting, makes sure he stays on track.

"He's very willing to do the things that are asked of him, and I think the results speak for themselves," Slusarek said.

Sowers runs nearly every day in two-mile loops around his neighborhood and rides his bicycle three times a week to and from his part-time job at Harps Foods, more than five miles away. He also crosstrained as a powerlifter for several months.

"It doesn't matter the weather or anything like that. He has just shown up and done the workout and didn't complain about anything," Kelley said. "Those are the athletes that are easy to coach -- the self-motivated ones."

Sowers has lost nearly 50 pounds thanks to his increased training and self-discipline in cutting out sweets and fast food and limiting his portions.

He credited his family and friends for helping him.

They "keep on telling me I can do it, and you know, I try, and then, I try and lose a few more pounds."

Sowers is pleased some of the other Special Olympics athletes look up to him, because "if they look up to me, then other people might look up to them."

Audiss said the experience is much broader for Sowers than just the competition.

"It's the people, traveling, just that whole experience is what he loves," she said. "He's a different kid since he's been involved in Special Olympics. It's really made him feel good about himself."

NW News on 06/22/2014

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