MAKS GOLDENSHTEYN, UW News Lab Writer

David and Bonnie Meyer were staying in New York City when they got the call about their daughter.

“We were pretty excited, pretty proud I’m sure as any parent would be,” Bonnie said. Katie, their daughter, was almost speechless, jumping around the family’s Kirkland home after her parents relayed the information they’d received — Katie would be representing the United States at the 2009 Special Olympics World Winter Games.

A 27-year-old alpine skier, Katie takes a moment to remember the way she reacted to the news. “Just crying,” she said.

It was a feat more than two decades in the making.

At the age of five, Katie took to the slopes for the first time with her brother and parents. But because adolescents with intellectual disabilities had limited opportunities to ski regularly, Katie took a break from the sport until the age of 20. That’s when she had the chance to join several friends who were already skiing with the Skihawks, a local winter sports racing team for persons with intellectual disabilities.

Katie hadn’t skied in some time and was new to the Special Olympics scene, her father said. These were just some of the challenges that would await.

“She was still maturing and she had some kind of emotional adjustment issues,” David Meyer said. “But she worked through those pretty well. They were all issues that were related to her disability, but she’s beyond them now.”

So beyond them that in 2007, Katie was named “Most –

Improved Skier” by the Skihawks. Last year, she won gold medals in two races and silver in a third at the state level, allowing her to be considered for the World Games, Bonnie said.

Two months ago, Katie traveled alone for the first time to Colorado’s Copper Mountain for the U.S. team’s training camp. There, she would meet a new coach from Wisconsin, someone she’d never skied with or known before.

Not that skiing on a mountain whose base has an altitude of close to 10,000 feet was a cakewalk either.

“I was almost the only one who didn’t get a headache,” Katie said.

Until recently, Katie, who plays a different sport every season, had worked full-time as a file clerk for a car dealership in Bellevue, but was laid off because of the economy, Bonnie said.

Affectionately dubbed “K-rod” by her mother, Katie plays shortstop in softball. She plays goalkeeper in soccer and belongs to a bowling league, which meets at TechCity Tuesday nights. Two weeks ago, she bowled a 209 against her mom. This summer, she hopes to try golf for the first time.

A family delegation that includes Katie’s parents, brother and sister-in-law will travel this week to Boise, Idaho for the World Games, which start Saturday.

There, Katie hopes to reunite with roommates from the Copper Mountain trip while competing in the sport she loves most, for the time being.

“Well, it’s her favorite winter sport,” her father said.

MAKS GOLDENSHTEYN is a student in the University of Washington Department of Communication News Laboratory.