Parents Holly and Clay Hammer celebrate with their son Carter, who added three more gold medals to his collection last weekend at the Alaska Special Olympics Summer Games. His second year participating, the swimmer now has six to his name.
A Wrangell boy earned three more medals at his second showing at the Special Olympics Summer Games, held last weekend in Anchorage.
A swimmer, Carter Hammer competed in a total of four events. For individual events he competed in the 25-yard butterfly, the 50-yard backstroke and 100-yard freestyle, finishing first in two. Coach Bruce McQueen reported Hammer had competed in the 50-yard freestyle relay as part of a combined team with other Ketchikan swimmers, edging out a Juneau team for gold medals.
"Last year was Carter's first year at Special Olympics, and we stayed pretty conservative with event selection," McQueen said. As then, Hammer stayed primarily with freestyle events, albeit in different stroke styles for an additional challenge. He had also won three gold medals during the 2017 games.
Hammer was the only competitor from Wrangell at this year's games, joining 300 other athletes from 10 other communities in the state. While 2018 is notably the Special Olympics' 50th year since the first held in Chicago, the sporting competition will have its own 50th anniversary in Alaska next year.
Participating athletes have to limit themselves to one sport at the summer games, and while Hammer pursued swimming other competitions included basketball, power lifting, gymnastics and track and field events.
His trip was largely funded through the Law Enforcement Torch Run held by local officers last month. Wrangell's first, the community raised $3,600 for the program.
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