BUILDER – SPECIAL OLYMPICS – INDUCTED IN 2016
Debbie Boycott was looking for sporting opportunities for her daughter Emily. When another parent mentioned rhythmic gymnastics, she was intrigued. As a high school physical education teacher, Boycott had taught gymnastics and Emily loved music and dancing.
However, there were no local Special Olympics gymnastics programs. That did not discourage Boycott, who founded the Oakville Butterflies in 1999 and served as its head coach.
She established working relationships with neighbouring gymnastics clubs to further enhance her athletes’ training and provide additional opportunities to compete.
Boycott earned the Ontario Coaching Excellence Good to Great Award in 2012. The following year she was named the Special Olympics Ontario female coach of the year.
Boycott helped foster the growth of the sport in the Special Olympics program by running training camps across the country and introducing it new coaches. At the time the Butterflies were founded, there were just three Special Olympics gymnastics programs in Ontario, within 15 years there were 17, including the Georgetown Sunflowers.
Boycott has been on the coaching staff of Canada’s rhythmic gymnastics team at the World Special Olympics Summer Games three times, once as an assistant coach in Shanghai in 2007 and twice as head coach, in Athens in 2011 and Los Angeles in 2015. At those games, Canada’s rhythmic gymnasts earned 76 medals.
Boycott received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Halton Down Syndrome Association in 2016 and when Special Olympics Ontario celebrated its 50tth anniversary, Boycott was one of the 50 recipients of the 50 Medallion Awards, as was her daughter Emily.