G.J. McCarthy photo

Mark Marquardt of Wentzville sits on MU’s Stankowski Field as he takes a break after his 1,500-meter run May 26 in the 2006 Special Olympics Missouri Summer Games. Marquardt joined more than 1,100 athletes from around the state as they took part in the three-day event, which featured a variety of athletic competitions.   • See the Slide Show

Robert Kissee was barely breaking a sweat after bench- pressing a few hundred pounds. In fact, he was already looking forward to the next event.

“I’m going for a 405” pound “dead lift,” the Jefferson County resident said. “If I want it, then I’ll get it.”

Kissee was just one of some 1,152 athletes who took part in the 2006 Special Olympics Missouri Summer Games last weekend. Flocking to Columbia from every corner of the state, they peppered parts of the University of Missouri-Columbia campus for three days, taking part in some 53 athletic events.

In 35 years — the last five of which have been in Columbia — Special Olympics Missouri has drawn thousands of mentally and physically disabled athletes to take part in activities such as powerlifting, track and field and swimming, to name a few. The athletes are likewise drawn for the camaraderie and the inspiration of watching their peers with disabilities give it their all.

By the final day of activities, it’s clear that disabilities don’t define these participants. They’re athletes by any other name — they train, they struggle, they strive for victory. They’re here to have fun, but they’re also here to compete. As Kissee would later say, “I like to play to win — that’s all.”