Special Olympics Unified Sports® pair Henry Meece, Special Olympics Oregon, and Chris Klug, Olympic bronze medalist beat out nine other pairs to take home gold for a 4th time at Special Olympics Unified Snowboarding at X Games Aspen 2019. Going into the race in Aspen, CO, Meece’s comfort level showed as he showered spectators with snow at the end of his practice runs. After the first race of the competition, Klug was feeling the pressure saying, “I better pick it up for my partner Henry on the second run.”
The competition consisted of 10 pairs each made up of a Special Olympics athlete and a pro snowboarder. This is the fifth year that the Special Olympics Unified Snowboarding race has been part of X Games and it was the first medal event of this year’s games. The Unified X Games competition was the brainchild of pro-snowboarder Hannah Teter who says, “The Unified event is a great way to kick off X Games because it reminds us pros why we started snowboarding in the first place – to have fun and make friends.”
ESPN is the global presenting sponsor and official media sponsor of Special Olympics Unified Sports®. In addition to covering the event on live television, ESPN taped Teter and her partner Daina Shilts, Special Olympics Wisconsin, for a Game Changer video series profile. Teter and Shilts placed fourth at this year’s event.
Here are the results.
- Henry Meece (SO OR/USA) / Chris Klug - 34.78
- Juan Guentrutripai (SO Chile) / Scotty Lago - 35.05
- Chris Perdue (SO IN/USA) / Mike Schultz - 35.37
- Daina Shilts (SO WI/USA) / Hannah Teter - 36.14
- Cody Field (SO CO/USA) / Amy Purdy - 37.17
- Carson Geiger (SO ID/USA) / Scotty James - 37.34
- Chase Lodder (SO UT/USA) / Danny Davis - 39.00
- Suk Il Hwang (SO Korea) / Sage Kotsenburg - 40.46
- Joey Franken (SO CO/USA) / Silje Norendal - 41.75
- Charlie Kleiman (SO NY/USA) / Jack Mitrani - 48.85
Watch ESPN’s coverage.
TAGS: Unified Sports, ESPN, Daina Shilts, Snowboarding, North America, X Games