Ten athletes from the Riverside Indian School, Anadarko, OK were chosen to participate in the 1999 World Summer Games, a sport festival organized by Special Olympics International taking place June 25, thru July 4, 1999. Riverside Indian School is a Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding facility open nationally to American Indian children. These athletes, plus two coaches, qualified by competing in the Special Olympics Oklahoma 1997 Winter Sports Festival where they won the senior boys' level 3-basketball division. A lottery was conducted between the six states that make-up the Special Olympic Region Six for specific athletic events, with Oklahoma drawing the senior boys' basketball competition. Preparation for these athletes began in July 1998. Riverside Indian School's special education department initiated a special program with assistance from Special Olympics of Oklahoma. Some of the components of this program included the establishment of an adaptive physical education, period collaboration with residential staff programs, and coordination with Special Olympics organizations in Amarillo, Texas and Kansas City, Missouri for additional competition.
Riverside's athletes are designated as Team USA-Oklahoma. They are one of seven senior boys' basketball teams from the United States. Other teams competing are from the states of California, Montana, North Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont, and West Virgina. Thirty-one nations from Asia, Europe, Latin America and North America are represented and will compete for gold, silver, and bronze medals. Riverside's athletes were part of a forty-three member group of athletes from Oklahoma that departed from Tulsa on June 25 as travelers in a special airlift program coordinated by Special Olympics frying on donated time by owners of private jet transportation. They are staying in Chapel Hill, NC and compete at sites in Durham, NC and Chapel Hill, including the Dean Smith Center on the University of North Carolina campus. Opening ceremonies began on the evening of June 26 in Raleigh, NC and the games will conclude on July 4.
Riverside's athletes are of Acoma Pueblo, Apache, Arapahoe, Cheyenne, Kiowa, Maricopa, Omaha, Sac and Fox, and Santo Domingo Pueblo descent.
