Some great athletes have competed in Richmond County the last couple of weeks, from the drivers at the Rockingham Dragway and Rockingham Speedway to members of the Richmond Senior High School varsity and junior varsity teams.

But none will touch as many lives or cause more memories than the athletes who competed in last week’s Special Olympics at Raider Stadium.

While these athletes will never be confused with the likes of Michael Phelps, their spirit and desire will never be doubted.

If you have never watched these athletes or been privileged enough to volunteer to assist during these games, then you will never fully understand joy and happiness.

Even though I wasn’t a part of these Special Olympics, I have assisted or covered others in my life, and once you have helped one athlete cross the finish line or make a throw, your life is forever changed.

On second thought, you don’t help the athlete. Instead, the athlete assists you.

They help you to understand just because they may not talk like you, walk like you or see like you, they do not have to be shunned or treated differently. They are just as capable as you or me, in fact, perhaps a bit more.

The photographs and story in Friday’s Daily Journal showed and talked about several student-athletes from Richmond Senior assisting in the day’s events. The photos show the Special Olympic athletes smiling as well as the volunteers.

I have been lucky to have been able to spend most of my adult life assisting and helping others understand people with disabilities. My fraternity in college created its own charity called PUSH America, to raise money to help to assist people with disabilities.

But it doesn’t stop there, beyond raising money PUSH America also teaches people in the community about understanding and accepting people with disabilities.

One of the most amazing things you will discover when talking to or assisting a person with a disability is how much they don’t want to be felt sorry for or pitied.

As I said earlier, these athletes are fighters and understand what it is like to pick themselves off the ground and get back up. Not once, but several hundred times. And yet they continue to do so, most of the time with a smile on their face.

Special Olympics in Richmond County was started back up just two years ago by Cathy Hoggard, wife of Richmond Senior football coach Paul Hoggard. Everyone should tip their caps to Cathy Hoggard for undertaking such a great endeavor, because without her leadership and vision, these athletes would not have an outlet.

When the Special Olympics returns next year, the greatest treat to these athletes is to have Raider Stadium full of spectators and volunteers cheering their every move.