Christine Quick lived up to her last name at the Special Olympics.
Quick, one of 15 athletes that represented Juneau at the Summer Games, was the anchor swimmer on the 4×25-meter freestyle relay team on Sunday at Dimond High School in Anchorage. Quick eclipsed her competition on the race’s homestretch, lifting the team of Quick, Nolan Harvey, Ryan Harvey and Sara Muehlberg to the gold medal.
“The big excitement was the 4×25 (relay),” Juneau swimming coach Michelle Umbs said. “We were very much in second place and our anchor swimmer won the race for us.”
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The Summer Games, hosted by Special Olympics Alaska, brought together over 300 athletes from around the state for competition in basketball, gymnastics, powerlifting, aquatics and track and field. The Juneau contingent, which split its talent between basketball and aquatics, amassed over 20 medals, many gold.
Juneau’s Lauro Untalasco competes at the Special Olympics Summer Games at the Dimond High School Pool on Saturday, June 8, 2019. (Courtesy Photo | Special Olympics Alaska)
Swimmers Ryan Harvey and CJ Umbs each won four golds in the water. In addition to the relay triumph, Ryan Harvey won the 25-meter backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle races. CJ Umbs earned golds in the 4×50 freestyle relay, 100 backstroke, 200 freestyle and 400 freestyle.
“He had some very close friends’ support,” Umbs said of her son. “We had a group of about 10 people who flew to Anchorage to watch him swim and they really were really a huge support of him at the pool.”
The Juneau Rebounders show off their gold medals at the Special Olympics Summer Games at Dimond High School in Anchorage on Sunday, June 9, 2019. (Courtesy Photo | Special Olympics Alaska)
The Juneau Rebounders, the basketball team, won its fifth consecutive gold medal, defeating the Mat-Su Timberwolves once and Tanana Valley Hawks twice. Both the wins against the Hawks were by just one point.
• Contact sports reporter Nolin Ainsworth at 523-2272 or nainsworth@juneauempire.com. Follow Empire Sports on Twitter at @akempiresports.
