By CASEY NEILL
MARK Hutton couldn’t have been happier with the way his Special Olympics career wrapped up.
The 38-year-old from Narre Warren lit the torch at the opening ceremony for last month’s National Games in Melbourne – his ninth – and took home a basketball silver medal.
“We lost to New South Wales in the final,” he said.
“We beat South Australia three times and New South Wales, we lost three times.
“But I was rapt to get a silver medal.
“I lit the torch as well at the opening ceremony. It was an honour to be proud of.
“Being my last national games, it was a great way to finish.”
Hutton first took to the court with Special Olympics when he was 14 years old.
“I retired from National Games because I’ve been involved with Special Olympics for 25 years,” he said.
He overcame two left ankle reconstructions and a snapped Achilles tendon to compete – injuries enough to drive most sportspeople into retirement, but a “rough trot” for Hutton.
“It’s been a great career for me,” he said.
“I would have gone off the radar if I didn’t have Special Olympics. They’ve been awesome.
“I’m hopefully going to be a mentor to the younger athletes that are coming through.
“Being a coach is my dream.”
He’s also a Special Olympics ambassador, striving to raise the competition’s profile.
“I do a lot of public speaking as well, just going around to different schools and businesses and letting them know about disability,” he said.
“It’s important to show people that with disabilities, we can do anything.
“There’s a lot of outside people that can be very mean.
“We might struggle but we don’t want people to feel sorry for us. We want them to respect us like everybody else.
“My goal is to spread that. If I don’t get anybody listening well I’ll continue doing it – I won’t quit.”
Another goal is helping other athletes to fund-raise so they can realise their dreams of competing on the national and international stage.
“It cost us $2600 for this tournament,” he said.
Next year’s World Games in Los Angeles will cost up to $8000 per athlete, but Hutton said the reward made it worth the effort.
“I won a gold medal for the World Games. That was in 2007, in Shanghai,” he said.
“That was my highlight. That was the best one I’ve ever won. We beat Great Britain.”
