By any measure, 28-year-old Steph Smith is a sports nut.
Among the sports Smith regularly participates in are downhill skiing, ice hockey, softball, soccer, track and field, swimming, and bowling. She scooped up three silver medals in skiing events at the provincial Special Olympics in Owen Sound, Ontario, this past weekend, a tally she can add to the dozens of medals she has picked up in previous meets. And she was named provincial Athlete of the Year in 2002.
But talk to Smith, and she will speak about the personal strides she has made just as proudly as her athletic accomplishments.
“I’ve got a lot of friends out of being in the Special Olympics,” says Smith, who is a member of the Bahá’í community of Newmarket. “I’ve become more outgoing. I’m not afraid to talk to people now. I was very shy when I started out.”
The Special Olympics provides athletic training and competition to people living with intellectual disabilities. It was founded in 1968 and now serves over 2 million athletes worldwide and over 30,000 in Canada.
Smith’s kindness to other athletes on the field and her generosity of spirit have not gone unnoticed. She was appointed an Athlete Ambassador last year, responsible for listening to fellow athletes about their needs and concerns and representing their voice to community councils.
She was born in Owen Sound, the site of this year’s Special Olympics, but grew up mainly in Newmarket, a medium-sized town 50 kilometres north of Toronto. She dabbled in sports as a child but kept mainly to herself. It was primarily through more intensive participation in sports that she came out of her shell.
“She was such a shy girl who wouldn’t speak up at all,” recalls her mother, Carol Plummer. “And now she’s an Athlete Ambassador who stands up and speaks up for other athletes who are afraid to speak up. She would never have done this when she was younger. Rather than just concentrating on what she wants, she thinks of what would help someone else.”
Plummer is not only Smith’s mother but her coach as well, having worked with her on the slopes and track for the past six years. And she has volunteered with the Special Olympics since Smith started competing in 1993.
The two have also given talks in their area about Smith’s involvement in the Special Olympics and their perspective on people living with intellectual disabilities.
“Just because a person is born with a different intellect than you or me doesn’t make them any less of a human being,” says Plummer, “and it doesn’t prevent them from achieving whatever they want. What makes a human being beautiful is who they are and what they do. And how could you have a nicer person than Steph?
“And that’s basically what we’ve presented. Let’s look at disability from a different point of view. Maybe the ones that are disabled are the ones that aren’t so kind and thoughtful of other people.”
The talks were initially intended to promote awareness of the program among people with disabilities who were not already participants. But they gradually turned into discussions about an individual’s worth and the place of disabled people in society.
Plummer credits much of their perspective to the Bahá’í Faith.
“When I started reading the Bahá’í Writings, about the nobility of a baby and that you’re not born in sin, it sort of grew from there. And I think we’ve come to more of an understanding as time goes by.”
‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the son of the Founder of the Bahá’í Faith, said, “[Bahá’u’lláh] has shown that although individuals may differ in development and capacity, they are essentially and intrinsically equal as human beings, just as the waves of the sea are innumerable and different, but the reality of the sea is one.”1
With the provincial games now over, Smith will carry on with winter sports until it warms up, sometime around May, and then make her way back from the slopes to the track.