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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
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Mom Sues Special Olympics for Her Son

CLAYTON, Mo. (CN) - A mother sued the Missouri Special Olympics, claiming it put her weightlifting son in the wrong weight division, so he took home a bronze medal instead of the gold.

Lenora Goolsby sued the Missouri Special Olympics on behalf of her son, Justin, in St. Louis County Court.

She seeks an injunction stopping the Missouri Special Olympics from holding its preliminary rounds this week until the defendant redetermines the result of its power lifting competition held at the University of Missouri this year.

Lenora Goolsby claims that a Special Olympics official told her that Justin, who suffers from severe ADHD, would compete against Jason Wilmesherr in the power lifting competition.

At the awards ceremony, she claims, she learned that Justin had been placed in a different division, and would have won the gold had he competed against Wilmesherr.

"Steve Wilmesherr was one of the powerlifting officials at the Special Olympics State Summer Games," the complaint states. "Steve Wilmesherr is Jason Wilmesherr's father.

"When Goolsby went to the scorer's table to announce his lifting weight before competing and before Goolsby could state his lifting weight, Steve Wilmesherr told Goolsby that he (Wilmesherr) would take care of putting down Goolsby's lifting weight and to go have a seat and not worry about it. Instead of telling the officials his lifting weight, Goolsby obeyed Mr. Wilmesherr's instructions.

"Special Olympics officials award Jason Wilmesherr first place and a gold medal for his powerlifting performance in the division in which he competed at the Special Olympics State Summer Games. He was the only competitor in his weight division."

Neither Wilmesherr is a party to the complaint.

Goolsby claims that Special Olympics rules state that the minimum number of participants per division is two, unless deemed unfair by the Games Rules Committee. She says she has received a letter from the defendant stating that Justin did not qualify for the Missouri National Games Selection Camp. She claims he would have qualified had he been correctly placed in Jason Wilmesherr's division.

She is represented by Jonathan Andres with of Green Jacobson.

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