“My name is Lin Kornhauser, I am 22 years old, and I’m proud to be a Special Olympics athlete. I participate in four sports: Basketball, Table Tennis, Bowling and Swimming. I became an athlete when I was 12 first competing in Swimming.
“My mother pushed me to learn how to swim. She said if I knew how to walk then I needed to learn how to swim! Now I love swimming, I sometimes feel like a dolphin and love being with my Special Olympics friends. I celebrated my 20th birthday in Shanghai. And I got two silver medals in table tennis.
(Lin was one of four Israelis who played in the table tennis tournament. )
“I like table tennis because I get to play with other people, some time I win gold, sometime silver but always I am happy to play” tells Lin.
“All my family support me. My three brothers are volunteers. My Dad is an orthodontist and he gives free orthodontic treatment to other athletes.
“Now I’m training hard to compete in table tennis in Warsaw 2010 and my father has been asked to participate in Healthy Athletes while my mother is going to give an art workshop in Poland” adds Lin.
Lin's story from being a slow developing child to one of the country's top special-needs athletes is the stuff of fairy tales.
"She was born hypertonic, and the doctors told me that she would never be able to walk," says her mother, Tali, who serves as the executive chairwoman on the Special Olympics Israel board of directors and spearheaded fund-raising efforts to provide the athletes with financial support to participate in the Shanghai games.
"Lin is really a miracle child," continues Tali, “and she has been an inspiration to us all, helping us to see life from a different perspective. One step for me is like the equivalent of 100 steps for Lin. She is a powerful motivator, she is my buttery, my present for life"
Lin is serious competitor and trains six times a week. Succeeding at sports has given her greater self confidence and independence while also making lots of new friends.
Her mother Tali, explains how seriously Lin takes her training. Once Lin and her mother went to Jerusalem to meet Chairman and CEO of Coca Cola, Muhtar Kent. Lin was not happy, she did not want to go to the meeting and her major concern was that she would miss her swimming training lesson with her coach Eyal.
When Muhtar Kent heard this he was touched by her honesty and had tears in his eyes and says "You see she doesn’t wear a mask, she tells the truth, the training is more important to her than anything!”
Now Lin is working in McDonalds , and when her mother Tali met Ralph Alvarez, CEO of McDonalds she told him that the reason Lin can work in McDonald's is because she got all her self confidence from training for years with Special Olympics. Tali is ever grateful to Special Olympics.
“Special Olympics and her sports training has given Lin a “life” we only dreamed she could have. I drive roughly 3,000 km. a month in all kinds of weather, to make sure that Lin gets to all her training sessions," estimates Lin’s mom. "I believe that it is normal for a parent with a special child like Tali to do all they can to improve the life for their child."
ENDS