The Cranston Cyclones competed in this year’s Special Olympics Summer Games, held during the first weekend of June in North Kingstown, winning gold in soccer.

The team participated in soccer, powerlifting and track and field events such as the 200m run, running long jump, shot put, turbojav, the softball throw and the 400X100m relay.

“If an athlete chose track and field they could choose two of those events, and some of those athletes we put in two relay teams so we had eight total athletes compete in the relay,” Coach Stephanie Palladini said. “If they didn’t choose track and field they had the option to choose soccer, which one Cyclone’s team chose to play, and they got the gold. Then we also have a powerlifting group of about seven athletes. In powerlifting, they do the bench press and the dead lift as well as a combination score. So, they can get up to three medals in powerlifting.”

In addition to gold medal in soccer, the team earned “a slew of medals across the other two categories, Coach Stephanie said.

The Cyclones have been established in Cranston for about 12 years now, explained Coach Stephanie. Before coming together as the Cyclones, the team was affiliated with Cranston High School West and went by the name Cranston West Falcons.

Coach Stephanie said that around the time she was graduating from West, several members athletes on the team were about to move on as well and find another Special Olympics team. However, they didn’t want to split up. So, Stephanie and the team decided to transition into a community based team rather than staying affiliated with the school in order to stay together.

“The good thing about that was once you become a community based team you can have athletes from anywhere join,” Coach Stephani said. “Just because we are the Cranston Cyclones, as that’s where we’re generally located, we have people on our team that are from Warwick, Narragansett or even Smithfield. We can take on any athlete from anywhere.” The Cyclones, unlike some other teams, participate in events year round. Throughout the year there are six to eight week long sessions where they play games against some of the other teams in competitions. While Special Olympics Rhode Island helps to filter teams into brackets for these individual matches, Coach Stephani said, fundraising, training and practices are all arranged by the teams themselves.

“Most of the athletes come to know each other really well, and we’re all really close across teams,” Coach Stephanie said. “We’re competition, but we don’t act like it.