Skier overcomes quakes to win Special Olympics gold

NAGANO (Kyodo) Cross country skier Yoshikazu Higuchi on Monday got Japan's first gold medal of the Special Olympics World Winter Games in Nagano Prefecture, winning in the 3-km freestyle.

Yoshikazu Higuchi (center) acknowledges the crowd with other skiers Monday in Hakuba, Nagano Prefecture, at the awards ceremony for 3-km freestyle cross country skiing at the Special Olympics World Winter Games.

His victory was all the more special because the 17-year-old from Ojiya, Niigata Prefecture, was on the verge of giving up on the Games after huge earthquakes wreaked havoc in his prefecture in October.

"I skied thinking only that I shouldn't fall," said Higuchi, who started participating in the Special Olympics for athletes with intellectual disabilities in 2002. "There were some hard times during training, but I did my best today. It felt great."

Higuchi came to the Games with his coach, Hirofumi Taniguchi, 47, whose home was destroyed in the magnitude-6.8 quake on Oct. 23, forcing him to move into an emergency shelter for two months and makeshift housing late last year. Taniguchi said the earthquakes prevented his athletes from training for about six weeks.

"It was a matter of life and death, and there were times when I thought about withdrawing from the Games," Taniguchi said.

Higuchi had to live in a tent for two weeks and could not attend school for some time because train services had been suspended.

But Taniguchi, a teacher at Higuchi's school, kept encouraging his athletes, telling them not to run away from hardship and to spur themselves on and face the situation.

"When I saw the athletes tackling their skiing with a determined attitude, I felt I myself could not succumb to something like an earthquake," Taniguchi said.

In Special Olympics competitions, athletes are grouped through a "divisioning" process, which is based on athletic ability, age and sex. All participants are recognized for their performance no matter how they fare.

At the Snow Harp Olympic venue in Hakuba, Higuchi swept across the finish line without slowing as he usually does when he gets winded in the latter half.

After the awards ceremony, Taniguchi congratulated him on a job well done.

When Higuchi shyly took out the gold medal he had put in his pocket, the coach, with tears welling in his eyes, scolded his athlete.

"What are you going to do if you drop it in the bathroom?" he asked. "Wear it around your neck so everyone can see."