Tennis player wins Special Olympics silver medal by one point

For Special Olympics athletes Kizzy Dutton and Brittany Selken, the difference between a silver medal and a bronze medal at the Missouri State Outdoor Championships on Friday afternoon at the Southeast Missouri State University tennis courts came down to a single point.

With the decisive tiebreaker tied 6-6 and an earlier decision to scrap the rule that says athletes must win by two points in the first-to-seven showdown because of the excessive heat, Dutton and Selken knew that the next point would be the last.

Not that Selken was nervous about the situation.

"No, what I was thinking is 'Ha, sleepy time,' and I really need to go to the bathroom," Selken said with a laugh.

Selken, as it turns out, had plans for a nap after finishing up the match. She got to take the silver medal with her after a Dutton sent a ball out of bounds on the final point.

"It's good," Selken said of her finish. "I like it when you go out of town. I just got back from nationals for tennis."

Selken, who is from the Kansas City area, won two tennis medals -- one gold and one silver -- at the national games.

Selken and Dutton exchanged comments and even encouragement throughout their match.

Meeting at camp

"We have a camp in the summer at Mexico, Mo., and a lot of athletes go to that," Selken's coach Linda Wiederholt said. "That's where they really get to know each other ... so then when they come to a state event it's bantering, it's friendship because [many of] the girls you see here ... were at camp this summer."

Both Selken and Dutton, who was recently chosen attend the next world games, have won state championships in the past and have played against each other numerous times.

"We're friends," Dutton said. "It goes back and forth. Sometimes beat, sometimes not."

The champion of Dutton and Selken's division, Karen Guth, said she likes playing against familiar opposition.

"I like playing against the same people," Guth said. "I like playing tennis."

Sets were shortened Friday because of high temperatures. Instead of playing to six games, the athletes played to four games.

"I have to be careful to because I have seizures," Dutton said. "That's why they're telling me to [drink] a lot of water."

Short court to regulation

Selken, Dutton and Guth, who participated in the world games in 2003, played on a regulation-size court with regulation tennis balls, but others play on smaller courts with larger balls. This variation of tennis at Special Olympics is called short court.

"That's where our athletes start at now," Wiederholt said. "I start them with short court and then they advance to regulation."

Selken, for example, played short court for a summer before beginning to play on a full-size court.

"My coach got me into it, actually," Selken said of her start in tennis. "I did short court, then I did full court. I like full court better. Now I don't do short court."

The game of short court is part of a Special Olympics effort to assure that all athletes can participate and compete on a level where he or she can enjoy success.

"It's amazing," Wiederholt said. "You learn how to stand and it's a ball that moves so much slower that you can hit it. You have time to hit it."

There are golf and softball variations played in the same spirit at Special Olympics.

"I have some athletes that this is their third year [of short court]. They're not going to advance to regulation, but just to conquer this is amazing," Wiederholt said.