At her first Special Olympics Canada Summer Games, Megan Boothby won four medals, including one gold.
In London, Ont., the St. Albert swimmer was pure gold in the 25-metre backstroke. She added silver in the 25m breaststroke and bronze in the 25m freestyle and 50m backstroke.
"It was actually a really good experience to learn what it's actually like to compete for nationals, despite the fact that it was 75 per cent humidity," she said. "I don't really like being outdoors a lot and I was basically sweating through my tracksuit when I was getting around, but it was a nice experience."
She added that on one day in particular, the temperature was 38 C and she felt like she was "boiling up like an egg." Because of that, while she enjoyed the opening ceremonies experience of parading into the stadium with her provincial teammates, she was glad the teams entered in alphabetical order so she didn't have to wait in the heat.
"There was like, God knows, hundreds, thousands, 10,000 people there," Boothby said. "It was a big stadium, just like the ones at provincials, except it was at the university [of Western Ontario] and there was twice as many people as I thought there would be."
Boothby actually came close to winning a fifth medal. After she was forced to fill in for a teammate in the 4x100-metre relay event after another swimmer sprained her ankle, Boothby said Alberta would've won a silver or bronze medal.
However, Boothby, trying to swim as fast as she could, was breathing on her side as she was going and accidentally got some chlorine water in her mouth, which she promptly spit out. The referee saw her spit in the pool though and disqualified her and the rest of her team from the race.
"I was kind of looking at those referees and thinking, 'Are you kidding me?'" she said. "You're disqualifying a person for spitting water? Are you kidding me? It's liquid. Like, give me a break."
Boothby was feeling bad that her injured teammate from Calgary couldn't win a medal so she set out to make it up to her.
"I went to the souvenir store that was outside our residence, where they basically sold T-shirts, plushies, coffee mugs and so on," she said. "I went there and I bought this cute little moose plushie with a red bandana around its neck, because I figured that would make it up to her. It was kind of like a get well present — I'm sorry and I'm thinking of you present."
Despite her strong showing at nationals, Boothby said she is taking a one-year break from swimming competitively.
"I'm thinking I should probably take the year off, basically, because I was so tired from all that work over the week, that I decided to take the year off for a break," she said.
In September, she's starting the Graphic Sign Arts program at NAIT.
Bowler throws strikes
Also at her first nationals, Katie Ann Lepine celebrated a gold medal in fivepin bowling.
"I was crying when I got it," said the St. Albert resident, originally from Fort McMurray.
Throughout the tournament, her average was 148, but in one game she managed a 235. A perfect game in fivepin is 450.
Lepine had a disappointing game near the start of the event after she heard her son wasn't doing too well in his group home, but after she heard his situation improved, so did her play.
Lepine added there were lots of people there watching and she was nervous before attending the games, but after she got there and began playing her nerves went away.
Her favourite part was "just being there."
Also on the bowling lanes, the St. Albert foursome of Rhona Ivan, Neil Ivan, Cheri Lefebvre and Michelle Sprogis received silver in the team event.
St. Albert will host the 2012 Special Olympics Canada Winter Games.
