COPPER MOUNTAIN — When Josh Reynolds brought home a gold medal from the Special Olympics World Winter Games last month, he found he was no longer the butt of jokes at school.
“Now the kids are treating me a little bit nicer. They were a little bit mean before,” he said of classmates at Brentwood Middle School in Greeley.
“They called me the ‘R’ word (retard),” he added. “I just ignore it, but it makes me feel bad.”
Reynolds, who won gold in a snowshoeing event at the Games in Idaho, is competing in the Colorado Special Olympics. The event at Copper Mountain Resort, which began Sunday and continues today, draws almost 400 athletes.
This is the 31st Special Olympics Winter Games in Colorado. They bring attention to the talents and capabilities of people with intellectual disabilities and help to change attitudes and break down barriers, said Kathy Muffenbier, Colorado Special Olympics spokeswoman.
Reynolds, 13, racked up another gold Sunday in a snowshoe race.
Brydie Charles, 21, who has taken part in regional and state Special Olympics for eight years, also competed in Idaho.
She won a snowshoeing gold at the national games and by mid-morning Sunday, she was readying herself for another race at Copper.
“I have won tons. I keep them on my door hanging and I can hear them clanging when I close the door,” she said.
Charles, who lives with her father in Aurora, doesn’t restrict her athletic endeavors to winter weather. She competes in aquatics, bowling, cycling and track and field.
Melina McCarty, 36, says the sports she enjoys includes volleyball and bocce and that taking part in the Olympics makes her feel fantastic.
“It is a great feeling because you accomplish a goal,” Charles said.
Charles accomplished a different kind of goal right before Christmas, she said: “I pushed through, and I got my high school diploma.”
The feeling of accomplishment she gets from taking part in the games isn’t the only reward. On Sunday, as she clacked across the packed snow in snowshoes, photographers snapped pictures and a television camera videotaped the event.
“I feel like we are celebrities. Paparazzi,” she said.
Her father, Neil Charles, 54, coaches his daughter’s team.
“I actually learn a lot from her. She can’t read or write, but she is as sharp as a pencil. She corrects me all the time. She is a whiz on the computer. We haven’t figured out how she does it,” he said.
Brydie Charles has a memory that frequently eclipses her father’s and a puckish sense of humor.
Meeting a reporter for the first time, she jokes that her dad gets The Denver Post at their home. “He throws it right in the trash can.”
Neil Charles has a second daughter who isn’t disabled. In many ways, he said, raising Brydie has been much easier. “Compared to my other daughter, who is 25, she is very compliant. . . . She is such a pleasure.”
Tom McGhee: 303-954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com
