Four Bemidji students to compete in ESPN Unified Sports Challenge

Four Bemidji Unified students will step onto a national stage Monday, June 22, when they compete in the ESPN Sports Challenge during the Special Olympics USA Games. Annabelle Myhre and Isabelle Vaughn will represent Bemidji as one Unified pair, while Lindy Westover and Kady St. Peter will compete as another, giving the district a visible spot in an event built around inclusion and athletic partnership.

The challenge is part of the 2026 Special Olympics USA Games, which run June 20-26 across Minnesota’s Twin Cities. ESPN says competition is centered at the University of Minnesota and the National Sports Center in Blaine, with coverage beginning at the Opening Ceremony on Saturday, June 20, at Huntington Bank Stadium. Nearly 50 hours of live competition will stream on ESPN+ during the week.

Unified Sports is designed to put athletes with and without intellectual disabilities on the same team, and Special Olympics says more than a million people worldwide participate in the program. That makes the Bemidji students’ appearance more than a one-day showcase. It places them inside a larger system of school-based and community-based inclusion that has grown far beyond one district or one state.

The scale of the USA Games underscores that point. Minnesota reporting says about 3,000 athletes from all 50 states are expected to compete, along with more than 75,000 spectators and 15,000 volunteers. For Bemidji, that means the students will not just represent their school or their partners. They will be part of one of the largest Special Olympics gatherings ever held in Minnesota, carrying the name of Bemidji Unified into a setting watched well beyond Beltrami County.

ESPN’s role gives the event even wider reach. The company says its relationship with Special Olympics spans nearly 33 years, that it has served as the Global Presenting Sponsor of Unified Sports since 2013, and that its broader programming agreement with Special Olympics runs through 2027. For Bemidji families, the moment is also a reminder of what local Unified programming can produce: students prepared to compete, collaborate and perform under national scrutiny while showing what opportunities for athletes with disabilities can look like in practice.