End of career at 69? Oh no!
Special Olympics icon can’t be stopped
6/23/2023, 6:52 p.m
At 69, Loretta Claiborne’s time to say goodbye to sport has not yet come. Apparently, the American does not know natural limits, sport means life to her. The famous Special Olympics athlete also serves as a role model for other seniors.
Apparently, Loretta Claiborne does not recognize natural limits. “Oh no – it’s far from over,” says the 69-year-old exceptional athlete energetically and full of conviction before her last appearance at the tennis tournament of the Special Olympics World Games in Berlin. “I’m still active in ten different sports. These aren’t my last games. I like sports.” The petite American last played in the Mentally and Multiple Disabled Games 14 years ago, and Claiborne made her Special Olympics debut 53 years ago.
For the middle of seven children, who was born with poor eyesight and an intellectual disability, sport means life. She only learned to walk at the age of four, but later won a total of 26 marathon races and, at the age of 29, made it into the top 100 at the Boston Marathon. At the World Games in the German capital, Claiborne, the first mentally handicapped person to be awarded several honorary doctorates, competes in tennis for the first time after winning the national qualification: “I already won with the opportunity to play. I wouldn’t have thought they would pick someone my age.”
Even with Obama in the White House
Even though Claiborne, who has become an icon in her home country and has already been received by Barack Obama in the White House, has already taken part in many World Games, she is happy to be able to start in Berlin. On the one hand, because “for the first time around 40 percent are women,” she says with a firm voice. But also because of the divided history of the city and the country: “The city and the country were divided and now everyone comes together to do sports.”
The former runner, who also has a black belt in karate, is a role model for seniors and shows that sport is possible in old age. For Sven Albrecht, Managing Director of the World Games in Berlin, Claiborne is a pioneer of one of the Games’ goals. The Special Olympics are not only an invitation for the mentally handicapped to take part in sports, but also “for older people and also for young people who don’t have that much confidence in sports.”
And now figure skating?
The so-called unified sport, in which people with and without disabilities form a team, is ideal for seniors to experience sport positively: “Even in competition and in their individual performance, unified sport does not convey the feeling of not being good enough “, says Albrecht, “but a feeling that sport is also good for your personal development.”
Claiborne, who will turn 70 in August and become the first Special Olympics athlete to be elected to the Board of Directors of Special Olympics International, does not strive for medals but finds fulfillment in her accomplishments. After her debut in tennis, she has already set herself the next goal: the Special Olympics Winter Games 2025 in Turin and in Piedmont. And Claiborne, who is still very lively despite her age, has already decided on the sport: “If I go to the Winter Games, I want to do figure skating.”