BELGRADE — The Special Olympics of Montana is holding its annual Winter Games at Moonlight Basin on Monday.
“Which one is my favorite? Um, there’s so many I can’t even really choose. It’s so hard,” said Amy Wittman.
How can you choose a favorite when you have so many? That’s Amy Wittman’s current dilemma, picking a favorite of her hundreds of metals and ribbons she’s won at Special Olympics over the years.
“I think I was about 8, maybe 6, around the time I started skiing,” Wittman said. “I was more of a speed demon. … They had to put me on tethers. Then gradually I got off of the tethers. Now they can’t keep up with me.”
“I was nervous … I didn’t know what to expect,” said Wittman’s mother, Vicki. “It was great. The way they start out with Eagle Mount, using tethers and everything else, it was the safest thing in the world. I never had to be concerned.”
And Amy definitely has a quality that everyone should dig deep to find: resiliency.
“My motto has always been, ‘Conquer your fears,’ so I just kind of live by it. So, it’s always like, ‘All right.’ I just face my challenge,” Amy said.
“We had a lot of people that told us when she was 3, 4, 5 that there’s so many things that she would never do, and she’s proved them all wrong,” Vicki said. “It’s not a disability; it’s the ability to keep trying, keep working with it, and use those resources and tools that she does, and I’ve always felt really proud.”
And if you want hundreds of medals like Amy, just take her advice
“Just push through it and conquer your fears. Everyone has a fear,” she said.
