Chandler Krahn captures for silver medals at National Special Olympic event
SPECIAL OLYMPIAN Chan-dler Krahn attempts a powerlift during the National Special Olympic powerlifting event last Friday afternoon in Seattle. (Photo courtesy of Mike Krahn)
SPECIAL OLYMPIAN Chandler Krahn gets a high-five after receiving four silver medals in his age bracket. (Photo courtesy of Mike Krahn)
Charlo High School football coach Mike Krahn got to watch his son Chandler Krahn compete in the powerlifting portion of the National Special Olympics from an unusual vantage point: as a spectator.
Krahn, who has been Chandler’s coach and mentor throughout his entire high school career, sat and watched his son win four silver medals in the National portion of the Special Olympics.
“I think if you are just watching, it’s way tougher than when you have a job coaching,” Krahn said. “It’s a pretty amazing experience, and we are blessed to be able to participate, especially when you go to an event the magnitude of it. This is only the second year Montana got to be involved in powerlifting on the national level.”
Chandler Krahn was put one of the biggest national stages and responded well to the adversity in this once-in-a-lifetime experience.
“Everything from the opening ceremony to the walk down to the dorm and as we came inside the parking lot, we heard all of those roars and the loud crowd noises,” Krahn said. “Chandler was telling me there was two miles of people cheering with noisemakers. It was so loud that you could hear it for miles. It was pretty amazing and I was getting pretty emotional about it. Seeing all of the support and excitement was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
Chandler Krahn, who captured four silver medals in the power lifting portion of the event, was able to keep calm in a pressure-packed situation.
“I’ve said this several times that there are a lot of people that coach sports and it’s really fun in the competition,” Krahn said. “Being in any sport in high school really prepares you for life. Whether its football, basketball, or track, you learn to deal with adversity, and that is what happens in life. It just builds your confidence. It helps to have a little familiarity with dealing with the pressure of being on a much greater stage, and each time you do it, you add to your (mental) strength.”
Krahn also credits all of his coaches for getting prepared in the moment against judges that were hyper critical of every move the powerlifters made.
“I think the preparation his coaches made worked out and that really had him prepared throughout the state games,” Mike Krahn said. “These national games have three judges. The participants lift and obey their every command and anything out of the sequence lift doesn’t count. As a spectator, you soak it in and try to figure out the high level of judging system. The coaches know their stuff and had them prepare in practices on command. Once they put the weight on the bar, you have to one minute to compete from behind the stage and get yourself set to lift. You really have to know what you are doing and the coaches did a great job of preparing them on what was going to happen at that level.”
In powerlifting, like track, you are competing against yourself, and Mike Krahn said he felt his son rose to the occasion on the biggest stage.
“He had all personal bests in his events and that is the one nice thing about powerlifting is that you aren’t really competing against another person,” Mike Krahn said. “I was very pleased with his lifts. Under strict judging rules, they could basically DQ you for anything like if you didn’t lock out a leg, and they don’t tell you what you did wrong. Out of his lifts, eight of the nine were successful. That was really good especially when a lot of athletes start showing some nerves and may do something out of sequence. I think he did really well.”