Colorado Springs Gazette Editor's Deaflympian Family
The Colorado Springs Gazette is the hometown paper of the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC.)
The fast-growing city of Colorado Springs is the home of the Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind (CSDB), which produced about 20 Deaflympians.
Editor's paper ran two significant stories about deaf people: 'On the trail of display errors at the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Museum,' and 'Deaf Colorado Springs residents rely on America Sign Language interpreters.'
Last February, Editor John Boogert emailed me, "My wife's family (Wilding) is full of Gallaudet grads." He referred to Gallaudet University, a private federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C., for the education of the deaf and hard of hearing.
John is married to a non-deaf Wilding woman, whose uncle is David "JERRY" Wilding, who became a Deaflympian in the 1957 Deaflympics in Milan, Italy, and ran two hurdle events and competed in the triple jump event.
Jerry served as Assistant Track & Field coach in the 1973 Games in Malmo, Sweden, the 1977 Games in Bucharest, Romania, the 1985 Games in Los Angeles, and the 1989 Games in Christchurch, New Zealand. In the 1997 Games in Copenhagen, Denmark, Jerry was a Head Coach.
Jerry's daughter-in-law, PAMELA Walker, played in the women's volleyball and brought home a Silver medal from the 1981 Games in Koln, Germany, and a Gold medal from the 1985 Games.
The Editor has another Wilding relative via marriage named EMILIE Butler Wilding, who skateboarded in the 2007 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, and Jerry's another daughter-in-law.
On the home front, the Editor's late father-in-law, George Wilding, was the most tormented officer of the American Athletic Association of the Deaf (AAAD) (renamed USA Deaf Sports Federation in 1997) during the 1980s when AAAD was undergoing significant changes by complying with the Amateur Sports Act of 1978.
Watch the video about George Wilding.
Again, the Editor has another Wilding relative via marriage named Max Wilding, the CSDB Athletic Director and Pamela's son.
Currently, Jerry hopes to see any 15 deaf of his 19 grandchildren becoming Deaflympians receiving the same treatment as the USOPC does for Paralympians only if Congress would amend Deaflympics in the Ted Stevens Olympic and Amateur Sports Act. If so, we could thank Editor John Boogert for his excellent editorship.
