{"id":23268,"date":"2026-06-26T02:35:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T02:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=23268"},"modified":"2026-06-26T02:35:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T02:35:00","slug":"marshfield-native-reflects-on-medal-winning-experience-at-special-olympics-usa-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=23268","title":{"rendered":"Marshfield native reflects on medal-winning experience at Special Olympics USA Games"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">MARSHFIELD, Wis. (WSAW) &#8211; It was a dream decades in the making for Josh Follen and his family. The Marshfield athlete represented Team Wisconsin at the Special Olympics USA Games this week, walking hand-in-hand with teammates during the opening ceremony.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Follen\u2019s mother Sharon Follen said the moment was emotional.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cSeeing that for the first time, I was tearing up,\u201d Sharon said. \u201cIt was like one big happy family.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">When it was time for competition, Josh said he felt ready to go.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cI wasn\u2019t too nervous, but I was pretty excited to get ready to do my first event,\u201d Follen said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">His parents felt the jitters instead. Sharon said they barely slept the night before.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cWe went to bed about two or three in the morning finally,\u201d Sharon said, \u201cand then the alarm went off.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The nerves turned into hardware for Follen. He earned four fourth-place medals in powerlifting, placing in the squat, deadlift and bench press, along with a fourth medal in another event.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Follen, who lives with cardiofaciocutaneous syndrome, said his story and a recent video about his journey have sparked support well beyond central Wisconsin.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cI got to meet a guy, he was from New York and saw the video,\u201d Follen said. \u201cHe was excited \u2026 and congratulated me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Sharon said the family has been surprised by how many people have recognized her son in public.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">For Follen, the experience is one he hopes isn\u2019t a one-time opportunity, looking to compete on the national stage again sometime soon.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsaw.com\/page\/apps\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"\" title=\"https:\/\/www.wsaw.com\/page\/apps\/\"><i>Click here<\/i><\/a><i> to download the WSAW news app or WSAW First Alert weather app.<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsaw.com\/page\/submit-a-news-tip\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"\" title=\"https:\/\/www.wsaw.com\/page\/submit-a-news-tip\/\"><i>Click here<\/i><\/a><i> to submit a news tip or story idea.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><i>Copyright 2026 WSAW. All rights reserved.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsaw.com\/2026\/06\/26\/marshfield-native-reflects-medal-winning-experience-special-olympics-usa-games\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MARSHFIELD, Wis. (WSAW) &#8211; It was a dream decades in the making for Josh Follen and his family. The Marshfield athlete represented Team Wisconsin at the Special Olympics USA Games this week, walking hand-in-hand with teammates during the opening ceremony. Follen\u2019s mother Sharon Follen said the moment was emotional. \u201cSeeing that for the first time, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":937,"featured_media":23269,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[273],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-powerlifting-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Marshfield native reflects on medal-winning experience at Special Olympics USA Games - World Bodybuilding News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=23268\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Marshfield native reflects on medal-winning experience at Special Olympics USA Games - World Bodybuilding News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"MARSHFIELD, Wis. (WSAW) &#8211; It was a dream decades in the making for Josh Follen and his family. The Marshfield athlete represented Team Wisconsin at the Special Olympics USA Games this week, walking hand-in-hand with teammates during the opening ceremony. Follen\u2019s mother Sharon Follen said the moment was emotional. \u201cSeeing that for the first time, [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=23268\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"World Bodybuilding News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-26T02:35:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ben Helwig\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ben Helwig\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/?p=23268#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/?p=23268\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Ben Helwig\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/e6e8a9697a90c1919c8ab8d337475d5c\"},\"headline\":\"Marshfield native reflects on medal-winning experience at Special Olympics USA Games\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-26T02:35:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/?p=23268\"},\"wordCount\":296,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/?p=23268#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/54RFYGXRONAUJOBLMC5IT3WFZE.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Powerlifting News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/?p=23268#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/?p=23268\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/?p=23268\",\"name\":\"Marshfield native reflects on medal-winning experience at Special Olympics USA Games - 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