Ann Chan, 23 years old, is a cute little down's syndrome. She had ever studied at a normal primary school at Hong Kong and moved to Vancouver with her family at the age of 5. As most of the down's syndrome, Ann likes music and dance since childhood.

Her mother got to know Special Olympics in Vancouver and she found that the eurhythmics and figure skating might be suitable for Ann. Considering Ann didn't know skating, her mother encouraged her to take part in eurhythmics. Ann loved it under a try and devoted herself into it and participated in competitions. Ann performed excellently both for province-level and the national competitions. She took part in the 2003 World Special Olympics as a member of Canada eurhythmics team, winning 3 gold medals, 1 silver medal and 1 bronze medal.

Encouraged by her mother, Ann also took part in skating and figure skating programs and won a bronze medal at 2004 Special Olympics Winter Games in Canada. In summer the same year, Ann and her family came back to Hong Kong. As soon as they settled down, Ann continued to go skating as her hobby. After the tournament selection in 2007, Ann became a member of Skating Team of Special Olympics Hong Kong. At the 32nd Special Olympics Skating Competition held in February 2008, Ann was awarded a gold medal. Finally, she is qualified to participate in 2009 World Winter Games.

Engaged in Special Olympics for nearly 10 years, Ann is no longer the shy and unconfident girl. She becomes much more active in study and in competition and makes a big progress in communicating with others. She has learned to comply with the disciplines and take care of herself independently when she goes out for games.

Skating is Ann’s favorite sports item. At Vancouver, she never missed the skating program on TV, and was familiar with skating skills and sports star of each country. Her favorite is Irina Slutskaya and Sasha Cohen. Ann still misses these programs very much after they came back to Hong Kong. It’s a pity that such kind of programs is rarely broadcasted in Hong Kong TV.

At present, Ann is studying piano and dancing, which is very helpful for her skating skills. Hearing an episode of music, Ann often says"I really hope to make a figure skating performance with it!"

 

Ann Chan with an athlete from Canada

 

Ann Chan on the podium

 

Ann Chan at National Winter Games of Canada