Special Olympian challenges president

Ann Arbor, Mich. —- One of the top bowlers for the Special Olympics looks forward to meeting President Barack Obama in an alley.

“He bowled a 129. I bowl a 300. I could beat that score easily,” Michigan’s Kolan McConiughey said Friday.

His challenge to Obama followed the president’s offhand remark on Jay Leno’s “Tonight Show” Thursday comparing his famously inept bowling to “the Special Olympics or something.”

Recognizing his blunder, Obama apologized to the chairman of the Special Olympics before the show aired. But his comment spurred an outcry.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin criticized Obama for the gaffe, calling it “degrading,” especially since it was “coming from the most powerful position in the world,” according to McClatchy Newspapers. Palin, whose son, Trig, was born with Down syndrome last year, appeared in a video promoting this year’s winter Special Olympics games in Boise, Idaho.

“These athletes overcome more challenges, discrimination and adversity than most of us ever will,” Palin said. “By the way, these athletes can outperform many of us and we should be proud of them. I hope President Obama’s comments do not reflect how he truly feels about the special needs community.”

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Friday the president believes the Special Olympics are “a triumph of the human spirit.” Gibbs added that Obama “understands that they deserve a lot better than the thoughtless joke that he made last night.”

Obama had “apologized in a way that was very moving,” Special Olympics Chairman Timothy Shriver said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

“I think it’s important to see that words hurt, and words do matter,” Shriver said.

“And these words that in some respect can be seen as humiliating or a put-down to people with special needs do cause pain, and they do result in stereotypes.”

Shriver is the son of Eunice Kennedy-Shriver, who founded the Special Olympics in 1968. The global nonprofit organization serves 200 million individuals with intellectual disabilities.

His sister, Maria Shriver, wife of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and a longtime Obama supporter, said that laughing at the president’s comments “hurts millions of people throughout the world.”

“People with special needs are great athletes and productive citizens,” Maria Shriver said.

Timothy Shriver said McConiughey, the bowler, might just get a chance to show off his skill at the White House because Obama wants to have some Special Olympic athletes visit.

McConiughey, 35, who is mentally disabled, lives with his foster mother and has held the same job at a grocery store for 16 years. He greets customers, sweeps floors and maintains the store’s break room.

He has been bowling since he was about 8 and has bowled five perfect games since 2005.

He offered a little sporting advice for the president.

“I’d tell him to get a new bowling ball, new shoes and bring him down to the lane,” said McConiughey, who speaks with a serious stutter. “Keep his body straight, his arm straight and keep his steps straight. He has to practice every single day.”