Jennifer Romero, an athlete with the Cortez Special Olympics, will participate in the Special Olympics 2001 World Winter Games in Anchorage, Alaska, this coming week, March 4-11.

She will join 19 other athletes and seven coaches comprising Team USA-Colorado and will travel to Alaska, joining more than 2,000 athletes from 80 different countries for the games. This year’s Colorado delegation to the Team USA were chosen at the end of last year’s winter sports season based on athletic accomplishments. Team USA-Colorado will have the largest delegation of snowshoers competing in the Special Olympics World Winter Games. Romero is a snowshoer.

Romero has been busy training individually for the past several months with local coaches Jim and Maxine Carton. She joined several other members of her team Jan. 20 at Copper Mountain Resort. It was the first they had trained together.

The events at the winter games will be alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, figure skating, floor hockey, snowboarding, snowshoeing, and speed skating. The seventh Special Olympics World Winter Games will be the largest international sporting ever to be staged in Alaska and the first large-scale event held in the state in the new millennium.

Team USA head coach for Snowshoeing is Anne Talbot of Durango and she is assisted by Michelle Brumagim of Greeley. Joining Romero on the snowshoeing team is Amy Burgemeister of Parker, Jackie Greene of Fort Collins, Kristi Koger of Hudson, George Dyer of Wheat Ridge, Danny Fick of Broomfield, James Kennedy of Bailey, and Steven Ruth of Durango.

Romero competed recently at both the Southwestern Regional Winter Olympics at Purgatory at Durango Mountain Resort and at the Colorado Winter Special Olympic Games at Copper Mountain Resort. That was a mandatory competition for all athletes traveling to the Special Olympics World Winter Games in Alaska.

The Cortez Special Olympics Snowshoe Team did very well at the Southwestern meet, coming away with 10 first-place awards and three second-place ribbons. The team is composed of Lara Gatewood, Eric Garcia, Jacob Milligan, Joseph Casarez, and Romero. The snowshoeing events include 50-meter, 100-meter, 300-meter, 500-meter, and one kilometer. They all represented Cortez at the State Games.