Jan Krekel, of Frankfort, is an adaptive physical education teacher and aquatics director at Churchill Park School in Louisville. She has been active in Special Olympics Kentucky programs for 30 years and currently serves on the program’s Sports Development Committee for swimming. Krekel is a veteran of major Special Olympics competitions. She served as a swimming coach at three previous World Summer Games events – 1991 in Minneapolis, 1995 in New Haven, Conn., and 1999 in Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, N.C. She also served at the 1988 Paralympics in Atlanta.

Katelyn Hale, 16, resides in Nicholasville and has been a member of the Jessamine Sharks Special Olympics swim team for nearly five years and competed in the Kentucky State Summer Games five times. A student at East Jessamine High School, she earned consideration for the spot on Team Kentucky with a leg on the gold medal-winning Jessamine Sharks 4×25-meter relay team at the 2005 State Summer Games in Richmond. She will swim the 25-yard freestyle and 25-yard backstroke, as well as a leg of the 4×25-yard medley relay at the National Games. This will be Hale’s first Special Olympics competition above the state level.

Jonathan Shelton , 20, has been involved in Special Olympics for eight years. The Louisville resident is also a member of the Louisville Stingrays Special Olympics swim team. He earned consideration for the spot on Team Kentucky with a leg on the gold medal-winning Stingrays 4×25-meter relay team at the 2005 State Summer Games in Richmond. He will swim the 25- and 50-yard butterfly, the 25-yard backstroke and the 4×25-yard medley relay at Ames. In addition to swimming, Shelton also competes in basketball and softball. He works at Ahrens Work Transition.