Plano’s Ian Rawn is back home from the Special Olympics World Winter Games and he is already back on the ice, training for the next one.
Rawn took 4th place in the world in the Level 3 Male Figure Skating category in Austria last week.
The 34-year-old with Down Syndrome has been training for his moment on the world stage for the last 8 years. He was inspired to take up figure skating when he saw Tara Lipinski take the gold medal in 1998.
"I train so hard because I am determined," Rawn said. "Because I have such high standards for myself."
Rawn said he is grateful for the opportunity to compete with the best of the best – and be one of the best of the best.
“It’s been such an amazing ride I’ve had so far and I couldn’t be any prouder of myself,” Rawn said.
His parents Jeff and Cindy Rawn flew to Austria to watch their son on the world stage, cheering in the crowd along with so many others.
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“It was an emotional moment for us,” Jeff Rawn said. “When he skated out on the ice and we’re thinking, ‘OK, the whole world is watching this,’ and he was amazing.”
Rawn took to the ice in a Spiderman costume, skating to the Spiderman movie theme song.
The family landed back in Plano from Austria on Saturday night.
Tuesday, Ian laced up his skates and was back on the ice, looking ahead to qualifying for Nationals in 2018 and eventually, the Special Olympics World Winter Games in 2021.
Rawn trains three times a week for three hours at a time at the Dr. Pepper StarCenter in Plano.
More than 2,600 athletes from 105 countries competed in the Special Olympics World Winter Games 2017, 139 of them from the United States.
Rawn was the only Texan to represent Team USA.
