VERO BEACH — From the crowd of 50,000 onlookers at an ancient stadium in Athens to the impromptu dozen who recently gathered at the Vero Beach Country Club, all eyes have focused on the gold medal around Richard Heath’s neck.
Heath, a golfer, won the top honor at a challenging 18-hole course two weeks ago in Athens, Greece, at the 2011 Special Olympics World Summer Games.
Given his new status as a gold medalist, it likely came as no surprise when Heath sank two 20-foot putts at the local club.
The cheers were apparently no less appreciated than the roars in the stadium in Athens.
“It feels pretty good,” said the ever-modest Heath.
Heath, a regular participant at Vero’s Abilities Resource Center, or ARC, just returned from the international competition of more than 7,000 athletes.
Heath, who turned 33 during the competition (organizers threw a party for him in his hotel), has played golf with his father Derek Heath since childhood.
Derek Heath, who moved to the Moorings in 2000 from Tennessee, flew to Greece separately to witness his son’s success.
“All I can say is, he was one proud parent when he got back,” said Chuck Bradley, executive director of ARC.
Richard Heath has been taking classes and working part time at ARC since he moved to Vero in 2005.
Bradley said there were whoops and high-fives when word came via a Vero Beach Special Olympics volunteer that Heath won the gold.
“There was joy and jubilation,” said Bradley, one of Heath’s most avid fans.
Last week, ARC threw what Bradley called a “victory party” for Heath, with 90 staff and clientele showing up for a spread of sub sandwiches and sodas.
“It was supposed to be a surprise party,” said Bradley. “But Richard stopped in to see me about two days after he’d gotten back in town, and one of our individuals gave him an invitation to his own surprise party.”
Nor was it a surprise that Heath excelled in Greece.
In his best round of four, Heath shot an 87 on the par-72 course at the Glyfada Golf Club, outside of Athens, overlooking the sea.
The course, built by Donald Harradine in the 1960s and later renovated by Robert Trent Jones, is considered particularly difficult for its numerous trees and rolling hills.
Compounding the challenge was that competitors walked the course in temperatures that hovered around 90 degrees; the rounds were played over four days.
“I saw the videos,” said Heath with customary calm. “My swing looked good.”
Heath, who averages an 85 at the Vero Beach Country Club, plays there most Sundays with his dad. In addition, he has been practicing twice a week on his own.
“I’ve been getting a lot better,” he said, two days prior to the overseas trip.
At that late stage, his progress was met with a hands-off approach from Derek Heath.
“We wouldn’t want to mess with what’s working,” he said.
That strategy proved wise. Arriving in Athens with the rest of Team USA, Richard Heath enjoyed a spectacular three-hour opening ceremonies – complete with fireworks and a performance by Stevie Wonder, before getting down to the business of bringing home the gold.
Heath learned to play golf in Johnson City, Tenn., where he lived before joining his dad in Vero.
“My dad taught me how to play, and we played at the golf course on weekends. I just liked it. It was fun.”
When Richard moved to Vero, ARC proved to be an excellent resource, Derek Heath says.
In addition to participating with Special Olympics, ARC also works in conjunction with Special Equestrians and Special Scouts.
The organization has worked locally for 35 years providing life skills and employment training, counseling and transportation to intellectually and developmentally challenged people.
Derek Heath and other family members traveled separately to the games, and joined up with Richard afterwards for some sightseeing.
During the games themselves, Derek Heath was strictly a spectator, he said.
“Which is a good thing. The parents would drive the coaches crazy.”
While Richard Heath admitted to being a little nervous, he typically keeps a cool demeanor.
“I’m supposed to not get mad when I do something wrong, and I don’t. I kind of yell at myself for making a mistake, but that’s about it,” he said.
Golf isn’t his only athletic pursuit.
“I like ping-pong,” he said. He also bowls, with occasional startling success. He recently rolled a 237, getting seven strikes in a row.
In Special Olympics play, Richard Heath is a rare talent.
“He plays the whole course,” said Bradley. “Not very many can do that. For guys with lesser skills, they put the ball on the green.”
Heath, who lives with some assistance in his own house on the mainland, works at Ability Resources Center three days a week, putting in eight-hour days coordinating the inventory for kits the center makes for new moms at the hospital.
He then rides along as the maternity kits are delivered to the hospital.
He also studies auto mechanics. With an interest in cars and engines dating from childhood, his dream is to train to drive a truck himself.
At the center, prior to the Athens trip, he took a break in his computer class to look up Greece on the Internet.
“We just looked it up and it’s a bunch of islands,” he said. “They were talking about the gods and Zeus.”
Heath qualified for the World Games by winning the gold at the Florida competition.
In March, he headed west to San Diego, where more than 300 athletes trained for Team USA.
There, he joined medalists from all over the country in a range of sports, staying at the Hotel Crown Plaza.
With more than a hundred coaches, the participants focused on team-building skills in preparation for the huge event in Athens.
He traveled to Greece with another Special Olympian from Fort Pierce, Kenyatta Johnson – who ended up winning the gold on a 9-hole course in what was her second World Games.
Once in Athens, however, the athletes were confined to their hotels, as months-long rioting over Greece’s recent austerity measures reached a zenith in the middle of the games.
Staging the massive sporting event, the 13th in Special Olympics history, proved a daunting trial of logistics and cool heads.
For the golf competition alone, 300 volunteers had to defy the city-wide transit strike to reach Glyfada Golf Course in the city’s suburbs so that play could continue uninterrupted. In all 25,000 people helped stage the games.
The ancient white marble Panathinaiko stadium, built in 329 BC and used in the 2004 Olympics, Athens, was not far from the rioting in a downtown Athens square.
All remained secure in the stadium where Heath and the rest of the 7,000 athletes paraded for opening and closing ceremonies.
In all, 60,000 people witnessed the 10-day event.
While tears flowed and hugs prevailed among many at the event’s end, Heath seemed happy to come home.
“I like being back at Vero Beach Country Club,” said Heath on his return. “It’s a nicer course than the course in Greece.”