Sailing Athletes - Garry Price and unified partner John Shephard
Garry lives in Denmead, near Farnham, Hampshire
John lives in Portsmouth, Hampshire
Garry is 43 years old. He has been involved in Special Olympics for 12 years, competing in many sports including football. As a sailor, he competed in his first national regatta in 1998 and then the national games at Glasgow in 2005, where he won a gold medal.
Garry’s unified partner John Shephard has been a volunteer for Special Olympics since 1997 and helps with his local SO group. He had done a bit of sailing before he started with Garry, but most of their learning has been together. John remembers the first time they went out on the water he was pretty apprehensive, but mostly for himself.
John says: “I didn’t think I would enjoy it at first. I’m not a great lover of deep water but the buoyancy aids do work, as we’ve proved quite a few times! I’m getting more confident now in what we have to do.”
Garry says: “I was a bit apprehensive when I started. And I panicked the first time I capsized. I didn’t know what to do. But it didn’t put me off!”
John says Garry he’s impressed by how Garry isn’t thrown by anything. As a sailing partner he describes him as very calm.
John says: “Garry has a great ability to judge what’s coming, he understands his role and mine, and he always responds to instructions first time, sometimes with no prompting. He’s very good at anticipating ….except when he’s busy chatting!”
Garry says: “It’s complicated. Especially when I do the jib sheets, I have to make sure it’s on the right side otherwise we’ll capsize and I don’t want that to happen.”
John says: “We’ve had some close calls and when you end up in the water it really takes something to get back in and go on. But when we keel over there’s not much chance of him getting wet, his sense of self-preservation is too strong!”
“In our first big competition we said we were just going out there to compete for the experience. But when we crossed the finish line we couldn’t believe how well we’d done. It was fantastic. Garry is very competitive, he works hard and always wants to push his standards upwards. And we like to come back with a medal.”
Garry and John will be competing in Shanghai at Level 1.
Garry says: “I was amazed to be picked. Shanghai is my biggest competition so far. We’re just going to go out and do our best.”
TO ARRANGE AN INTERVIEW WITH THE ATHLETES OR COACHES, PLEASE CONTACT THE SOGB NATIONAL OFFICE.
TELEPHONE: 020 7696 5569 OR EMAIL TO: pr@sogb.org.uk