Starting in 2009, in keeping with the Centennial Celebration of the Village of Floral Park, the recreation department instituted the first ever Olympic games for its junior and senior Morning Sports campers. Recently, 2016 girls and boys were invited to participate in an Olympic-style decathlon. Each group competed in their own division: Junior girls and boys competed from 8:30 to 10 a.m. and senior girls and boys from 10 to 11:30 a.m.
That morning, all campers in attendance were divided into four teams in their respective division. The sports counselors were captains and coaches and selected their teams. The seven events incorporated the skills of the various summer sports camps. The sporting events included basketball, soccer, volleyball, tennis and football. Each camper competed in each event in the spirit of competition, sportsmanship and team play. The theme of this year’s games was countries, in keeping with the current summer games in Rio.
throw line for gold.
More than 60 campers had a very enjoyable morning competing in the diverse set of contests.
In the junior Olympics, going into the final event three teams were separated by only one point. A win by Argentina in soccer was the deciding factor in the team achieving gold medals. Argentina Olympians were: Erin Ring, Christian Campoli, Michael Campoli, Chase McLaughlin, Ryan Connolly, Vincent Spitaletta, Kieran Donovan, Gregory Tam and Miles Lucatorto.
The Senior Olympics concluded with the football throw and water balloon toss, with South Africa achieving gold. Team members were Marisa Fernandez, Braden Troy, Lilly Doyle, Joe Gory, Darragh Moynihan Avery Meighan and Torsten Gliszczynski.
—Submitted by the Floral Park Recreation Department
