BRATTLEBORO — If there could be anything warmer and more encouraging than 15-year-old Emma Davis as she is, it's got to be Emma Davis with three Olympic medals - two gold, one silver - around her neck.
Emma won the honors at Special Olympics Vermont on June 4 and 5 in Burlington at the University of Vermont pool. She was the only Windham County representative, and usually is the youngest in her competitions.
As her mother, Robin Davis, pointed out, age is not the issue in the Special Olympics - sporting events for children and adults with intellectual disabilities. It's all about athleticism, concentration, a desire to win and a devotion to getting it right.
For example, in the 100-meter individual medley event, swimmers must get the order of the styles right - butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle - each for 25 meters. One of the athletes got it wrong, which catapulted Emma from bronze to silver.
Emma got it right. She took the silver medal with a time of 2 minutes, 34 seconds.
The next event, the 50-meter freestyle (that's 25 meters up and 25 back), she won the gold with a time of 1:03. And in the third event, the 50-meter butterfly, with just one other competitor, she took the gold with a 1:04 finish, beating her opponent by three seconds.
There were 100 swimmers competing and Emma won her medals in divisions set by officials based on the athletes' qualifying times. She had five or six opponents in all but the butterfly.
'Good job'
Emma, a seventh-grader at Brattleboro Area Middle School, has lived in Brattleboro all her life. She has been swimming under the convincing tutelage of Beverly Current of Brattleboro, the longtime director of the Tyler Swim School at the Colonial Motel pool on Putney Road.
Current is married to B.C. Current, an electrician at Vermont Yankee. She can be found and heard most afternoons teaching group and individual lessons to every manner of swimmer, scared and brave.
Emma's relationship with Current is easy - so easy that she can be seen at times refusing her instructions, but then giving in with slightly bored body language.
Emma generally has a weekly lesson, but there was extra training for about three months to prepare for the Special Olympics.
Emma arrived at the pool for the interview with a bouquet of sweet Williams for her teacher, and a bag of hazelnut biscotti.
Why does she think she won?
“I did a lot of cool stuff,” Emma said, with the humor that is such a dominant part of her personality.
Current said of Emma's performance in the freestyle event, “She was always out front with a perfect stroke, breathing every third stroke, perfectly horizontal. She was just so good and had such poise of posture. Also, she was the only one who did the flip turns at the wall.”
There is such a thing as proper swim etiquette, Current explained.
“After swimming, you stay in the pool congratulating or acknowledging other swimmers.”
“I said, 'Good job,'” Emma said.
Special Olympics, founded by Eunice Kennedy Shriver in 1968, now includes nearly three million athletes in more than 180 countries.
According to the Vermont Special Olympics website (vtso.org), its purpose is “to change lives by encouraging and empowering people with intellectual disabilities, promoting acceptance for all.”
Vermont holds summer and winter games annually. National games begin July 15, in Lincoln, Neb.
Current says she felt Emma was ready to train for competition some time ago and finally interested Emma's parents, who, once the idea was set in motion, became enthusiastic participants.
“Emma's had a lot of endurance swimming,” Robin Davis, a preschool teacher at the Timson Hill School in Williamsville, said. “Anybody can go, but you have to have a will to go. There are people there who are afraid of the water, but they compete by walking for 10 or 15 meters with their arms raised.”
Emma, Davis said, took to the water as a young child and after seven years of lessons, “I think she had a vision of really wanting to do this. It was daunting at first but she wanted to compete. Even when she didn't want to train, I would just hold up the [competition] instructions and she would change her mind.”
Davis expresses great admiration for Current. “She devoted the entire weekend to Emma, staying in the dorm with her,” she said.
Davis said she and her husband, Andy, a music teacher at several elementary schools, and Emma's brother, Arthur, a junior at Brattleboro Union High School, stayed in a hotel.
“Emma and Beverly were the only marchers from Windham County in the parade,” Davis said. “They carried a sign.”
Davis said the family had considerable support from the Frances Hicks Foundation, which paid $50 a lesson for Emma's training and for some of the other expenses as well.
The foundation was formed at the closing of the school of the same name, which preceded what is now the Winston Prouty Center for Child Development. Some of these changes took place when children with certain disabilities were integrated into the main school system.
Emma is typically embarrassed when her mother and teacher talk about her talents and interests, like theater and piano.
It took a little coaxing, but she admitted to graduating from Hannah Montana to the Jonas Brothers.
“I like hanging out and sleepovers, and I love food, and I like clothes and shopping,” she said. “I like turkey dinners and chocolate ice cream and brownies.”
She was especially pleased as she remembered the recent BAMS dance. “I wore my confirmation dress and my pink shoes,” she said.
She has a piano recital coming up which includes a duet with her father. She concedes that even though she's advanced beyond the fictional Hannah Montana, she definitely likes Miley Cyrus videos. And cross-country skiing, which she does with her father, could portend winter Olympics competition.
But the summer games are on the schedule for next year, Robin Davis said.
“We'll keep doing it,” she said. “It's such a good experience for everyone.”