Rocklin student wins 2 medals at Special Olympics

When he entered the pool at the 2019 Special Olympics World Games in Dubai, Rocklin resident Alec Heuermann felt prepared. He had devoted himself to training, even taking the spring semester off from Sierra College, where he studies mechatronic engineering. By the end of the event, the 20-year-old athlete walked away from his first World Games with two silver medals in the 200 meter freestyle and the 4x100 meter relay. Heuermann's training paid off. "I focused a lot on the 200. That was a new race at the time," Heuerman said. "So I practiced that and also did a little bit of sprinting and breaststroke." Along with the 200-meter freestyle and the 4x100 meter relay, Heuermann also competed in the 100 meter breaststroke and the 100 meter freestyle. The 2019 Special Olympics was held in the United Arab Emirates, marking the first time the games were held in the Middle East since the competition's creation in 1968. The event, hosted from March 14 to 21, featured 7,500 athletes from 190 countries. Heuerman has been swimming competitively since his freshman year at Rocklin High School. He swam with the Rocklin High School Team and was a member of both of the recreational teams offered by the Rocklin Swim Team. "When he got too old for those teams, he still wanted to swim, so we joined Special Olympics," said Heuermann's mother, Candace Capron. Athletes are eligible for the Special Olympics if they earn a gold medal in a state-level competition, have an intellectual disability and are at least 8 years old. Since joining the Special Olympics in 2017, Heuermann, who has autism, has won multiple state-level golds, entering him into a national lottery to join the U.S. team. Heuermann learned he would compete in the 2019 World Games last June. Since then, Capron said, her son trains three to four times a week with the Rocklin Swim Team's Mavericks, a year-round recreational team that practices at Whitney High School. Rocklin Swim Team board President Travis Miller has observed Heuermann's level of commitment increase over the past few years. Miller said the 20-year-old has been working more closely with coaches and has become more focused on the sport since he joined the Special Olympics. "His level of dedication, competitiveness and intensity has certainly gone up," Miller said. "But as soon as he gets out of the pool, Alec is Alec. He has fun and likes things that every other kid his age likes." When he's not in the pool, Heuermann is a student at the Rocklin Unified Transition Program for 18- to 22 year-olds and at Sierra College. After taking a break to focus on preparing for the World Games in the United Arab Emirates, Heuermann will go back to studying mechatronic engineering at Sierra College this summer and fall. However, that doesn't mean his training will take a back seat. Just two weeks after returning from Dubai with two silver medals, Heuermann is back to a steady training schedule with his Rocklin coaches and Mavericks teammates. Capron said her son is preparing for regionals in May and the state competition in June. "I think I want to just train as hard as I can and make it to the pool for the next World Games or Nationals," Heuermann said of his goals. Heuermann then recited the dates he has his sights on: Nationals in 2022 and the World Games in 2023.