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Fort Wright coach Debbi Ogden to lead swimmers at 2023 Special Olympics World Summer Games


Fort Wright coach Debbi Ogden has been named the head swimming coach for the Special Olympics USA team for the 2023 Special Olympics World Summer Games. The Games will be held June 17-23, 2023, in Berlin, Germany.

While this will be the first time coaching at the World Games level for Ogden, she has served as the Team Kentucky head swimming coach at the last two USA Games – in 2018 in Seattle and at the 2022 Games in Orlando, Fla., this past June. In those two Games, Ogden’s nine swimmers have combined to capture 15 medals, including four gold medals. At the 2022 Games, the Kentucky 4x 50-yard medley relay team combined to win gold in a time of 3:18.730, one of three gold medals won by Kentucky swimmers at the Games.

2019 Special Olympics Kentucky Summer Games, held at Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, KY for the 25th Year.

Ogden has been a Special Olympics coach for 16 years but has been working with individuals with intellectual disabilities for nearly 35 years. She has coached the Northern Kentucky Dolphins Special Olympics swim team since beginning with the program. In addition to Special Olympics coaching, Ogden has also coached the Ludlow/Bromley swim and dive team, the St. Agnes School track and field team and the St. Agnes School fifth grade volleyball team in Fort Wright. She is the Senior Executive Assistant in the Development Department at Children’s Hospital in Cincinnati.

Ogden is one of two Kentucky coaches on the Special Olympics USA coaching staff. She is joined by Mary Fehrenbach of Versailles who will serve as Special Olympics USA’s head gymnastics coach at the World Games for the fourth time. She is making her seventh overall trip to the World Games as a coach. They will also be joined by the Lexington Unified golf pair of Wake Mullins and Unified partner Dennis Gaines, who is also Mullins’ stepfather, as well as by Russellville gymnast Lee Dockins. It is the first trip to the World Games for Mullins and Gaines, but the fifth for Dockins.

While all Special Olympics USA team selections do not become official until after the Special Olympics USA Team Training Camp that will be held this November, it is expected that all five Kentucky selections will make the trip to Berlin.

The 2023 Special Olympics World Summer Games mark the return of the Games to Europe for the first time since the 2011 World Summer Games in Athens. The Games are expected to bring together more than 7,000 athletes from 170 countries to compete. This will be the fifth time that the World Summer Games have been held outside the United States. The others were in 2003 in Dublin, Ireland; 2007 in Shanghai, China; 2011 and 2019 in Abu Dhabi. The 2015 Games were held in Los Angeles.

While all Special Olympics USA team selections do not become official until after the Special Olympics USA Team Training Camp that will be held this November, it is expected that all five Kentucky selections will make the trip to Berlin.

For more information about the athletes and coaches named to the Special Olympics USA Team for the 2023 Special Olympics World Summer Games or about how you can help support their trip, contact Special Olympics Kentucky President and CEO Trish Mazzoni at 800-633-7403 or via e-mail at tmazzoni@soky.org.

Special Olympics is the world’s largest program of sports training and competition for children and adults with intellectual disabilities. Participation in competitive events is open to all individuals eight years of age or older. Training and competition in local, area, state, and national programs is offered year-round in Kentucky in 15 sports. In addition to its traditional sports competitions, Special Olympics also offers early childhood programming through the Young Athletes Program and medical screenings though the Healthy Athletes Initiative. Special Olympics Kentucky began as a one-day event in Louisville in 1970 and has expanded to serve more than 11,000 athletes statewide annually. Special Olympics celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 2018.

Special Olympics Kentucky


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