Huntington Athlete Gears up for Special Olympic World Winter Games

A Huntington High School student is gearing up to fly out to Austria to compete in the 2017 Special Olympic World Winter Games.

Liam Mrotzek will be among 2,700 athletes from 107 countries competing in the games.

Mrotzek is one of 28 U.S. snowshoe team members. He will compete in a venue located in the city of Ramsau, Austria on five separate days:

• March 18— 200m snowshoe dash preliminaries
• March 20— 400m snowshoe dash preliminaries
• March 21— 200m snowshoe dash finals
• March 22— 4x400m snowshoe relay preliminaries and finals
• March 24— 400m snowshoe dash finals

He will leave New York City and travel to Washington, D.C., next Sunday and will then fly to Europe the following day with the rest of team U.S.A.

ESPN will broadcast the opening ceremonies on Saturday, March 18.

“Liam is so excited to represent his country at the Winter World Games in Austria,” Dr. Erica Murphy-Jessen, a veteran Huntington High School teacher, told the Huntington Union Free School District. “Liam is a great student who is always kind and helpful to his peers.”

Mrotzek’s Blue Devil teammate John Cronin was named an alternate on the U.S. World Winter Games team, but he won’t be traveling to Austria. Athletes on the Blue Devil team, coached by Linda Costello-Roth, have earned dozens of gold, silver and bronze medals in recent years.

To learn more about the competition or to track the results, visit http://www.austria2017.org/en/.

Info and Image via Huntington UFSD: (l-r) John Cronin and Liam Mrotzek. John Cronin was named an alternate on the U.S. World Winter Games team.