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Andres “Andy” Miyares is 21 years old and has participated in Special Olympics for 14 years. He is best known for his prowess in aquatics, but also competes in tennis, basketball, golf and bowling.
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Andres “Andy” Miyares, Special Olympics Florida. [Photo courtesy Miyares family] |
Miyares, who lives in Miami, has competed in Special Olympics local, state, regional and national levels, and, regardless of the sport, almost always finishes in first place. “Sports has given me the ability to know that I can do anything I want to do,” said Miyares, who is bilingual, fluent in both English and Spanish. “I know I have Downs [Down Syndrome], but that only makes me try harder to succeed. Special Olympics took me to be at the White House and to meet the Kennedy Family. I am always trying my best. I meet lots of people and I have a lot of friends.”
His parents are Ana Maria and Carlos Miyares, and he has four siblings. Coming from a family where everyone was active in sports, Miyares wanted to join in as well, so he began participating in Special Olympics through his school. The entire family is involved in Special Olympics and has been honored at the local, state and national level for their involvement.
The following excerpts are from an autobiography posted on a "Disabilities and Sports" Web page —
“My name is Andres Miyares and I have Down Syndrome. My mother helped me to write this story...
I was born on June 9, 1983 to my parents Ana and Carlos who already had three boys and one girl. My Mom was 44 years old and that placed her in the high percentile of possibilities of having a Downs baby. My mom's pregnancy was normal, she didn't have any tests because she said she was going to have me no matter what. So here I came.
I was born with no physical problems, my heart was fine and everything else that could have gone wrong didn't. The problems I had went along with having downs. I had very low tone in all my muscles, so it made it very hard to sit, crawl and, of course, walk. All through my early months I had intense physical therapy and in spite of it, I still wasn't making the progress that my mom wanted to see...
The doctors told my mom that regardless of the fact that I had Downs, I still carried my family's genes. Whatever we had excelled in life, I should benefit from. Having come from a family of swimmers, in the water I went at the early age of nine months. To my doctor's amazement, in three months of swimming I could swim like a frog underwater and even hold my head up. My lack of muscle tone was quickly disappearing. Though they had predicted I wouldn't walk until age two or three, I made liars of them all and started walking at 13 months. Swimming turned me into someone who beat all the odds and still today I continue through swimming to succeed...
... [The doctors]were able to establish that from a cognitive standpoint I was very high functioning. I seemed to be able to learn and could handle speech very well. This was a big challenge for my whole family because we are from Cuba, that is, my parents are from Cuba. My brothers and sister were all born here in the US but, naturally, spanish was spoken at home making the two languages an important issue in my learning process...
Cognitively I progressed like wildfire. Numbers came easy. I related them to the pools I swam. Multiplication tables were a piece of cake, I have to know how many twenty-five's make a 400...
Its hard to have people look at you funny and sometimes stare, but my mom says to me its because you glow and everyone stares at those who standout for something. I wish sometimes I would look more like my brothers and sister, but I guess I wouldn't be me if I did..." |
“Special Olympics and Andy go hand in hand in our lives,” said his parents. “We have learned with him, through sports, how limitations only exist in our minds. Special Olympics has shown us love, competition, perseverance, and courage beyond anything we ever imagined…friendships, fun and most of all, letting the world know that all these kids and adults have a lot to offer.”
Miyares attends Miami-Dade Community College, taking courses to obtain his G.E.D., as well as computer classes. In addition to his devotion to sports, he is active in his community. Miyares:
- volunteers at Project Drive, a local school for special needs children, twice a week
- volunteers at a summer camp at the Miami Rowing Club, teaching young children how to swim in addition to being a Swimming USA Coach and junior lifeguard; he also assists with coaching Special Olympics aquatics
- is a spokesman for the ARC of South Florida as well as Special Olympics Miami-Dade, giving presentations in the community
- has helped build three homes across the country with Habitat for Humanity
“Special Olympics elevated Andy into another dimension in the sport of swimming: he is the only Down Syndrome swimmer to be ranked in International Paralympic Committee( IPC) swimming,” said his family. “Andy doesn’t believe in limitations and it has been Special Olympics that created the opportunity for him to thrive and succeed.”
Swimming Records Held by Andy Miyares:
International Paralympic Committee Worldwide Rankings
400 M Freestyle — ranked 36th in the world
100 M Butterfly — ranked 33rd in the world
At the 2004 U.S. Paralympic Trials, Andy came home with four first-place finishes in the mile, breaking the PanAm record. He broke the PanAm record in the 800 M freestyle and broke records in the 100 M Fly and 200 M Fly in the S-14 category.
American USA Adapted Swimming Records
Short Course (yards):
50 Butterfly 29:59
100 Butterfly 1:06:08
200 Individual Medley 2:54:22
400 Individual Medley 6:40:00
Short Course (meters):
50 M Butterfly 38:55
100 M Butterfly 1:25:03
200 M Butterfly 3:11:49
200 M Backstroke 3:24:13
200 M Freestyle 2:50:03
Long Course (meters):
400 M Individual Medley 6:51:40
4 x 100 M Freestyle Relay 5:06:44
4 x 200 M Freestyle Relay 11:29:10
4 x 100 M Medley Relay 5:58:10
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