Harvey Arcangeletti of Sault Ste. Marie has been honoured with the Dr. Frank Hayden Athlete Lifetime Achievement Award from Special Olympics Canada for his many accomplishments as a competitor in numerous sports over the course of nearly five decades.
The award is bestowed upon an athlete who has “best exemplified the spirit, philosophy and goals of the Special Olympics movement over the course of their career,” according to the Special Olympics Canada website.
Arcangeletti was presented with the award during a ceremony held in Toronto Oct. 29.
“It was pretty exciting,” he told SooToday during a recent interview. “The medals come second — the skill and the hard work is the goal of it.”
The Sault native is a decorated athlete who has earned 105 medals in Special Olympics action — which has seen Arcangeletti compete in swimming, baseball, track, floor hockey and bowling events — since he began participating back in 1976 as a 16-year-old.
He has represented Special Olympics Canada at World Games in Baton Rouge (1983), Minneapolis (1991), New Haven (1995), North Carolina (1999) and Japan (2005), and was also a member of Team Ontario at the National Games in Halifax (1994).
Outside of competing, Arcangeletti has represented Special Olympics Ontario at the final leg of the Law Enforcement Torch Run for the 2001 World Winter Games in Anchorage, Alaska.
He was also given the nod as male athlete of the year for Special Olympics Canada in 1996, and was officially inducted into the Sault Ste. Marie Sports Hall of Fame in 2007.
Although numerous medals, ribbons and trophies adorn his home in the Sault, Arcangeletti remains adamant that all of the awards he’s won over the years are secondary in nature.
“The accomplishments are your skills, your goals, the hard work you put into it,” he said.