Special Olympics Competitor

Emma Wright recently competed at the state level in the Special Olympics, winning five gold medals.
Emma competes in the Special Olympics as a gymnast. She is a rising fourth grader at The North Carolina Leadership Academy.
“She started gymnastics when she was three-years-old as an outlet,” said her mom, Barbie Wright. “When she was little, she would grab onto things in the house and do pull ups, so we needed an outlet at a very early age.”
Emma started out attending Carolina Twisters, where Kernersville Parks and Recreation Department is located today, but now attends High Point Gymnastics Academy. She has been competing in the Special Olympics for the past three years, starting when she was eight-years-old.
“She did an exposition at the age of seven,” Barbie explained. “She went to all the meets and they scored her, but it was just more practice for her.”
Emma said she competes in four different events.
“I do beam, floor, bars and vault,” she shared. “My favorite is floor, but I also like bars a lot. I am happy when I am on bars.”
Emma practices one-and-a-half hours a week for gymnastics and another hour each week just for the Special Olympics.
“She trains with Coach Brittany Caroll at High Point Gymnastic Academy,” Barbie said. “They came to us and offered to train her at no cost to us.”
Emma mentioned that she enjoys training.
“I like practicing. It’s fun and it gets me in shape,” she said. “I like to do handstands and cartwheels.”
She noted that she had been learning and working on doing a round off back handspring and was successful at the move during the Special Olympics.
“During the Special Olympics, she did it perfectly for the first time,” Barbie shared.
Emma chimed in, “Nailed it!”
“It’s pretty rare for someone with Down syndrome to be able to do a round off back handspring, which makes it pretty awesome. She’s very flexible,” Barbie added, as Emma showed how she is double jointed by joining her hands and taking them from above her head, behind her back all the way down to her waist.
Emma discussed her routine for each event this year. On beam, she walked on the beam, turned around and stepped. Then turned around again, did an arabesque, bent over to touch the beam with one hand as she lifted one of her back legs in the air and then finished with a round off.
During the floor exercise, she performed to “Let It Go” from Frozen. She explained that she did a round off back hand spring, a cartwheel, handstand, front roll, jumped up, did a backwards roll, and did two back kick overs in a row.
“That’s when you go into a backbend and then kick your feet over,” Barbie explained. “That’s pretty impressive because it’s hard enough just doing one.”
On bars, Emma said she hung for a bit, then pushed away into a swing and then did a back hip circle on the low bar. On the high bar, she jumped up, swung, and dismounted.
“I think she got her highest score on the bars and the second highest in the floor exercise,” Barbie shared.
During vault, Emma said she ran and jumped onto the springboard and then did a handstand flat back off of the springboard.
Barbie said the scoring in Special Olympics is different than that of the Olympics.
“In the regular Olympics, they start at 10 and add points, but in the Special Olympics, it starts at 20 and they subtract points,” she shared. “They have both artistic and rhythmic gymnastics and hers is considered artistic.”
When she first started competing, Emma was competing at a level one, but soon rose to level three.
“She was in level one and her coaches suggested that she skip level two and go onto level three. In level three, she can use her own music and routine for the floor, but they give you elements you have to do,” she explained. “In her first year at level one, she won three gold medals and two silver medals.”
Barbie added that they had teams from Raleigh and Charlotte at the meet as well.
“We drove to Raleigh for the state meet,” Emma shared.
Barbie explained that on Friday night, they had a ceremony like in the actual Olympics, representing all of the sports and even lit a torch. The events were held on Saturday.
“This is her second year in a row that she got a gold medal in all of her events and one for all around, which is when they combine all of the scores,” Barbie explained. “The last two years she has done the best out of her age group.”
Although she won five gold medals, Barbie said she will not be heading to Nationals.
“For Nationals, you have to be invited so everyone gets a chance to participate,” she said.
Emma said she enjoyed competing in the Special Olympics.
“It made me feel happy to win. It was exciting,” she said, as she showed how she waved and gave a salute on the podium. “I want to keep doing it. It’s awesome.”
Barbie explained that next year, Emma will stay at level three and they will continue to add elements to each of her events to make them more advanced and to continue to challenge her.
“It will allow her to get extra points,” she said. “One thing we want to work on is to add a back tuck to the round off back hand spring.”