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Special Olympian Has Advice For Obama

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The Associated Press

Published: March 21, 2009

ANN ARBOR, Mich. - So President Barack Obama thinks he bowls like a competitor in the Special Olympics?

He's obviously never met Kolan McConiughey, a mentally disabled man considered one of the nation's top Special Olympics bowlers, with five perfect games to his credit. He would like to go to the White House and show the president a thing or two about how to roll strikes.

"He bowled a 129. I bowl a 300. I could beat that score easily," McConiughey said Friday.

His challenge to Obama comes after the president's offhand remark on Jay Leno's "Tonight Show" Thursday comparing his inept bowling to "the Special Olympics or something." Recognizing his blunder, Obama apologized to the chairman of the Special Olympics before it aired.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs on Friday said the president thinks that the Special Olympics are "a triumph of the human spirit." Gibbs added that Obama understands that the athletes "deserve a lot better than the thoughtless joke that he made last night."

In addition to five perfect games since 2005, McConiughey has had an 800 series and carries a 212 average. He laughed about the popular president's apparently poor game.

"I'd tell him to get a new bowling ball, new shoes and bring him down to the lane," McConiughey said. "Keep his body straight, his arm straight and keep his steps straight. He has to practice every single day."
Special Olympics Chairman Timothy Shriver was quick to respond to the president's apology.

"He expressed his disappointment, and he apologized in a way that was very moving," Shriver said Friday on ABC's "Good Morning America."

Obama, he said, wants to have Special Olympics athletes visit the White House to bowl or play hoops.

That would be OK with McConiughey, who has been bowling since about age 8.

"It would be an honor for him to bowl with the president of the United States," said Lois Arnold, president of the Special Olympics in Michigan.

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