{"id":312948,"date":"2026-06-19T11:24:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T11:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/312948\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T11:24:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T11:24:14","slug":"special-olympics-team-florida-golfer-goes-for-gold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/312948\/","title":{"rendered":"Special Olympics Team Florida golfer goes for gold"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. \u2014 The opening ceremony of the Special Olympics USA Games<\/a> is happening this Saturday in Minneapolis, Minn.<\/p>\n

Nearly 170 Team Florida<\/a> athletes are competing in more than 16 sports.<\/p>\n

Laura Wuerker is part of the golf team and says it has positively impacted her life.<\/p>\n

Wuerker honed her game at Timber Greens Country Club in New Port Richey ahead of the tournament. Her practice routine is simple: She puts on her glove, takes a few practice swings and then smashes a long drive.<\/p>\n

“I play twice a week,\u201d Wuerker\u00a0said while driving a golf cart. \u201cTuesdays and Fridays.”<\/p>\n

She is representing her hometown of New Port Richey and Florida in this year’s Special Olympics USA Games.<\/p>\n

“I’m really excited,” she said. “So excited to have fun, compete and be with my athletes.”<\/p>\n

Wuerker’s coach, Mary Beth Radigan, said she is looking forward to a successful week for her team.<\/p>\n

“She’s got the drive, she’s got the spirit, and such a positive energy,\u201d Radigan said. \u201cSo, out of the kids that we’re taking, she’s one of our leaders. We’re going to do well.”<\/p>\n

But Radigan said this is about more than the work put in by the athletes \u2014 the friendships players build and the support from staff members make a lasting impact.<\/p>\n

“Especially after they’re done with high school,\u201d Radigan said. \u201cThey need that extra support, and Special Olympics provides healthy athletes and community. It’s their friends.”<\/p>\n

Radigan said Wuerker\u00a0is inspiring more than her teammates.<\/p>\n

“Laura inspires everyone. Her positive attitude,\u201d she said. \u201cYou wake up in a bad mood, you see Laura and the way she is daily, that’s what inspires me.”<\/p>\n

And Wuerker is incredibly happy to take a swing at this year’s games.<\/p>\n

“It makes me feel so excited and motivates me to keep going with golf and all that,” she said.<\/p>\n

Wuerker is chipping away at the challenges, sinking her putts, and hoping to add more medals to her collection.<\/p>\n

The 2026 USA Games run through June 26.<\/p>\n

Demi Lovato and Jon Batiste are performing during the Games’ opening ceremony.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. \u2014 The opening ceremony of the Special Olympics USA Games is happening this Saturday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":312949,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1238,274,28,30,29,115,1338,25744,110,135,278],"class_list":["post-312948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-app-sports","tag-app-top-stories","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-news","tag-pasco-county","tag-roy-de-jesus","tag-sports","tag-tampa","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/312949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}