Andy miyares biography

Andy was born with Down syndrome.
Andy Miyares was born with Down syndrome.
A four-year starter at quarterback • A three-star recruit according to Rivals • A Miami-Dade all-county selection • A two-time team captain • Tabbed team MVP.

•

On World DS Day: Celebrating Athletes with Down Syndrome—Who Prove Their Power, Ability Through Sports

People with intellectual disabilities (ID) are accomplishing more than anyone ever thought possible, as Special Olympics athletes prove every day around the world.

Yet, not that long ago, attitudes were very different. When Eunice Kennedy Shriver wanted to create a summer camp for young people with ID, she was told myth after myth, including that physical exertion might even be harmful. Later, when she wanted to hold a “Special Olympics” in Chicago that would include swimming, organizers heard more myths, including that people with Down Syndrome had “negative buoyancy”—and would drop in the water like rocks.

For Shriver, the whole point of such sports events was to change people’s attitudes. So she made sure swimming was included in those first Games in 1968—and ever since.

Since then, athletes with Down syndrome have emerged as versatile sports stars—from swimming to track & field to gymnastics to judo. More recently, they’ve embraced a new milestone: taking on enduranc

•

Special Olympics Swimmer, Born With Down Syndrome And Without Fear

By Kristina Puga, NBC Latino

Andy Miyares was born with Down syndrome. His mother was told his life would be full of limitations. When Andy was a baby, he lacked muscle tone and couldn’t hold his head up, but 28 years later, he has won more than 800 medals and has broken 24 world records as a Special Olympics swimmer.

His mother, Ana Maria Miyares, enrolled him in swimming lessons at Swim Gym in Coral Gables, Fl when he was just 9-months-old, and since then, the pool became Andy’s oasis. At 6-years-old, he was already competing.

Sometimes she would worry for her little boy who looked only 4 when he was 6. However, Andy seems to also have been born without fear. She recalls how he used to look so courageous standing next to the other swimmers since such a young age.

She remembers one day in particular when they were at practice, and he said, “Mommy, I will follow the best swimmer and I will try and pass him.”

And she says that’s pretty much what he’s done always.

“He decides to follow and improve, improve,

•

HEROES FOR MY SON

Why should grown-ups get all the historical, scientific, athletic, cinematic, and artistic glory?

Choosing exemplars from both past and present, Mitchell includes but goes well beyond Alexander the Great, Anne Frank, and like usual suspects to introduce a host of lesser-known luminaries. These include Shapur II, who was formally crowned king of Persia before he was born, Indian dancer/professional architect Sheila Sri Prakash, transgender spokesperson Jazz Jennings, inventor Param Jaggi, and an international host of other teen or preteen activists and prodigies. The individual portraits range from one paragraph to several pages in length, and they are interspersed with group tributes to, for instance, the Nazi-resisting “Swingkinder,” the striking New York City newsboys, and the marchers of the Birmingham Children’s Crusade. Mitchell even offers would-be villains a role model in Elagabalus, “boy emperor of Rome,” though she notes that he, at least, came to an awful end: “Then, then! They dumped his remains in the Tiber River, to be nommed by fish for all etern