Burlington bocce champ wins gold at Special Olympics World Games

Laura Stremble is the first athlete from Burlington to compete in the Special Olympics World Games, and she’s come home with some serious hardware. 

Stremble, 21, is a multi-sport athlete who attended the World Games in Berlin in June for bocce, where she earned a 4th place medal, a bronze and a gold. 

Stremble got her start in sports with rhythmic gymnastics 12 years ago, and took up bowling six years later. She has only been playing bocce for three years, and was ecstatic when she heard she’d be heading to Berlin for the Special Olympics World Games, along with 7,000 other athletes from around the world. 

“I was very excited, it was like a dream come true,” Stremble, who currently lives in Dundas, says. 

Bocce is a lawn target sport, where a coin is flipped to determine who throws the pallino (the target) and the teams try to get their balls as close to it as possible. It is similar to curling, but on grass or gravel. 

Despite only picking up the sport a few years ago, Stremble came out strong, with her best performances being against the host nation Germany and a strong American side. 

In doubles, she beat Guyana 9-7 to bring home the gold. 

The Special Olympics operates a bit differently from the Olympics, as there are different divisions of competitions to keep things balanced and fair between athletes. Stremble won her gold medal in division one, the highest level of competition offered. 

To prepare, Stremble flew to Vancouver in March for training camp with the team. It was the first time she'd been on a plane without her family. 

“I traveled with the Ontario team, and it was very cool. Vancouver is awesome,” Stremble says. “From there, we flew back to Toronto, and then we went to the airport to get to Munich, and a train to Berlin.”

Stremble’s hotel in the Olympic village was full of athletes from other English-speaking countries. The teams regularly bumped into each other at meals and in the hallways, and exchanged pins from their home countries to take home as keepsakes. 

“I loved being in a new city,” Stremble says. “It was cool to meet people from all of the different countries and learn their languages.”

Though Stremble did add that the lack of air conditioning in the German hotels was a bit of a surprise for herself and her family. 

On Wednesday afternoon, Stremble stopped by her bowling coach Carole Crawley’s place of employment, JYSK in Burlington, to say thank you for the support she has received over the years, and to show off her medals. JYSK is a supporter of the Special Olympics, and is working its way to being the highest tier supporter it can be. 

The furniture store sells plush geese and reusable bags at checkout with 100 per cent of proceeds going towards the organization. Since 2008, JYSK has donated $100,000 each year to the games. 

Stremble will next head to provincials for rhythmic gymnastics in Kitchener-Waterloo in 2024. Her mother Joanne says she jumped the line by going to a world competition before ever making it to provincials.