Bart Conner was a member of the USA gymnastics team at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, where he won two gold medals, one for all-around team and one for the parallel bars competition. Conner has spent the last 36 years volunteering for Special Olympics and is on the board of directors for Special Olympics. Daily Bruin Sports’ Matt Cummings spoke with Conner this week at the Special Olympics World Games gymnastics competition.
Daily Bruin: How did you first get involved in Special Olympics?
Bart Conner: I was a college kid in Oklahoma and I was invited to come teach a couple of Special Olympics athletes some cartwheels and some forward rolls. They were young and they didn’t really have a lot of fitness, but I really connected with the pure joy and the sense of accomplishment they experienced when they learned some skills. And I remember thinking, “Wow all they really need is a chance for somebody to give them the chance.”
To me, that is the beauty and magic of Special Olympics. It’s about acceptance, it’s understanding, it’s appreciating that we are all different. We all have different gifts and who is to say whose gifts have more value. And it’s really cool because you come here and see nothing but joy and a sense of pride and acceptance and an inclusiveness.
These athletes, unfortunately, often are stigmatized back in their countries, and institutionalized in many places, but you know we are just trying to tell the world that our Special Olympics athletes just deserve a bit of your attention and sports is great way to do it because it is a nonthreatening way. We play together and all of sudden we start fostering a relationship and a sense of acceptance.
DB: In sports there is often a huge focus on competition. How do you make that take a back seat during Special Olympics events?
BC: There is a way to get that right. In Special Olympics we have something called Divisioning. That is really important to the whole Special Olympics movement. Day one, these athletes compete, and based on their scores and their performance they are basically seeded, that way they compete against athletes of similar ability. So everyone has a chance to experience the joy of success, and also maybe the disappointment of failure if they didn’t do their best or somebody worked harder and succeeded.
And that is kind of how life is, you know. It used to be the idea that, “Special Olympics is great and everyone gets the gold medal.” But this is not what it is about. It’s about the idea that all people deserve a chance. And not everyone gets a gold medal, but these are the lessons and the values you learn through sports that allow Special Olympics athletes to be more likely to be contributing members in their community, more likely to go to school, more likely to be accepted and more likely to get a job.
DB: It seems like your success has helped you in giving back.
BC: Well, I’m grateful. You know, I remember one of our big supporters for many years was Bono from U2. And he said, “Celebrity is like currency. Use it wisely.” And I don’t have a lot of celebrity, but I use whatever leverage points to get the message out. This is 2 percent of the people on the globe that have intellectual challenges and they are in some place chained to a post and institutionalized and that’s not how we think. We think that everyone has gifts that are unique and different, and they all deserve to be appreciated.
DB: Where do you see Special Olympics going in the future?
BC: The real sort of long-term vision is total inclusion. What we are really promoting now is this division of Special Olympics called Unified Sports made up of a team of individuals with and without intellectual disabilities playing together. And if we get that right, that could be mainstream in public schools. This is about inclusiveness. This not only raises the play and the experience for the athletes; it also is a catalyst for a connection. So you might likely become friends with an athlete that you might have never had the opportunity to meet. And that means you will invite them to your house or to a movie. That is what we are talking about. It’s social acceptance, and sport is the vehicle to help make that happen.
DB: How do you feel Unified Sports is going so far?
BC: Twenty-five percent of the competition here at these Games involves Unified Sports. It’s not fully accepted around the world because some people think it is a little bit of a challenge to the traditional Special Olympics model. But I think if we get it right, and it will take a long time to get it right, I think it will help with our ultimate goal.
Compiled by Matt Cummings, Bruin Sports senior staff.