MADISON, Wis. – Special Olympics Wisconsin (SOWI) is happy to announce that three athletes and two coaches will travel to South Korea for the 2013 Special Olympics World Winter Games to be held on January 29 – February 5, 2013. The SOWI delegates will be among the 209 members of Special Olympics Team USA, including 151 athletes, 44 coaches, four medical personnel, and management team members from around the United States.

This is the 10th Special Olympics World Winter Games. It will unite nearly 3,300 athletes from 112 countries in PyeongChang, South Korea. More than 15,000 family, friends, volunteers and spectators are expected to attend the largest winter multi-sport event ever held in the country.

Making the trip to South Korea are: Alex Guild, 22 of De Pere, who is competing in snowshoe racing; Daina Shilts, 21 of Neillsville, who will compete in snowboarding; and Jason Suino, 23 of Hayward, who is competing in cross-country skiing. Special Olympics Wisconsin coach and Tomahawk School District instructor, Bonnie Kahn, and SOWI coach and Neillsville School District instructor, Steve Meurett, will oversee the cross-country skiing event at next year’s games.

In preparation for the World Winter Games, Special Olympics Team USA athletes and coaches will attend a training camp in Albany and Lake Placid, New York December 10-14, 2012. The training camp will be the first time the Special Olympics Team USA delegation will be together prior to the 2013 World Winter Games. The camp will offer a variety of team building activities and sport-specific training in alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, snowboarding, snowshoeing, speed skating, figure skating, floor hockey and floor ball demonstration.

Every two years, the world transcends the boundaries of geography, nationality, political philosophy, gender, age, culture and religion to come together the Special Olympics World Games. Alternating between summer and winter Games, this event is the flagship event of the Special Olympics movement, which promotes equality, tolerance and acceptance around the world. More than 4 million Special Olympics athletes train and compete in more than 170 nations across the globe. To learn more about the 2013 World Winter Games, visit the 2013 Special Olympics World Winter Games official website at

http://www.2013sopoc.org/hb/en, or find more information about the athletes representing Team USA at http://www.specialolympicsteamusa.org.

SOWI provides year-round training and competition opportunities through 17 different Olympic-type sports for nearly 10,000 individuals with intellectual disabilities. Thank you to Kwik Trip and the Law Enforcement Torch Run, the Mission Partners of SOWI, enabling the organization to hold 137 statewide competitions and five state tournaments per year.