Family shares the joy as powerlifting Rachel celebrates bronze medal

TEAM USA’s Rachel Lynch celebrated her father’s retirement as Chief of Police in Wisconsin

Rachel, who is 26, was taking part in her second World Games and her triumph was made even more memorable by the support of six family members who travelled together from Wisconsin to share her joy.

Her mother Susan said: "Rachel first competed in the World Games in 1991 when they were just next door in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This is our first time as a family travelling for international competition."

Rachel, whose 'can do' attitude to sport meant she has practiced all of the disciplines throughout her career, commented: "Power-lifting is my favourite. What SO means to me is that I get to meet new people and to compete in powerlifting and when I'm out there doing my best it just feels great."

Patrick Lynch was chief of police in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, a city of 60,000 population. He just retired before travelling to Ireland on reaching the age of 55 after 30 years service in the force.

Their journey was not without incident "We arrived on Saturday. It was supposed to be on Friday but we had a little plane problem, a twenty-four hour delay," said Susan.

"We got bumped and I've never been bumped on a plane before, on an international flight too. We flew through Toronto into Dublin and we're here until Monday."

All the members of Rachel's family were hugely impressed at the entire SO programme.

"It has just got to be overwhelming to organise something this huge. They are all volunteers and people help everywhere. It's very well organised" said Susan.

They were unanimous that the highlight apart from Rachel's bronze-medal winning performance was the Opening Ceremony.

Said Susan: "The Ceremonies were just awesome. It was incredible. It was just so well done. We'd been before, like I said, in 1991 and I just felt things were so much more centred to the athletes' entertainment this time."

Rachel was just as enthusiastic "They had many things down at the athletes' level" she said, "and I liked Arnold Schwarzenegger, James Bond and Pierce Brosnan."

Susan took a more motherly point of view. "Actually our primary concern was seeing our athlete come in and we had a good view.

"Somebody back home had made us a great big banner that we held up so that Rachel could actually see us when she came in," she said.

Said Rachel: "I recognised Dad's suit, he had a suit on, Dad did. All of the team were at the ceremony and they were all impressed."

Rachel's brother, Kyle, who is 18 months older, was unable to be present. He has just completed his service in the US Marine Corps.

Susan was not aware of any Irish connections, despite their Irish names. "Maybe there is Irish in there somewhere, perhaps through my husband years and years ago. He was born in the southern part of the State."

So what has Special Olympics meant to the Lynch family from Eau Claire "I think it has helped make me a better parent" said Susan, "because Special Olympics has given Rachel opportunities to be with her friends and to be off on her own and to travel."