Researchers Heads to S. Korea for Special Olympics

RAPID CITY - A team of researchers from Black Hills State University is headed to South Korea to study athletes at the Special Olympics World Games.

The goal is to study performance anxiety in athletes with intellectual disabilities. BHSU Assistant Psychology Professor Emilia Boeschen will lead the team and spend two weeks with athletes from around the world.

Their research begins Monday with the opening ceremony. Most of the trip will be paid for through private donations.

Boeschen tells the Rapid City Journal that the trip is a "dream realized" for her because she began her research for the project in 2007 while a doctoral student at the University of North Dakota.

So far, her research has found that athletes with intellectual disabilities experience similar levels of competitive anxiety as able-bodied athletes.

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