Mystie Lucast — Youngest Member of U.S. Special Olympics Team

Watching 14-year-old Mystie Lucast glide and twirl across the ice like an enchanted fairy, you would never guess what this youngest competitor on the U.S. team at the 10th Special Olympics 2013 World Winter Games in Pyeongchang, Korea, has overcome.

Watching 14-year-old Mystie Lucast glide and twirl across the ice like an enchanted fairy, you would never guess what this youngest competitor on the U.S. team at the 10th Special Olympics 2013 World Winter Games in Pyeongchang, Korea, has overcome. The victim of shaken baby syndrome and physical abuse as an infant, she suffers from intellectual disability, a seizure disorder, attention deficit disorder and a spinal deformation that causes her to sleep in a brace.

“She has a lot to deal with,” says her mother, Debby, “but all that really matters is that she is a great kid.”

When the Lucast family of St. Joseph, Missouri, took Mystie in as a foster child at age 2, she could not talk or walk because she had been kept continually in her crib.

Debby Lucast tried a number of activities to help bring Mystie out of her shell, such as dance and gymnastics. When Mystie got into the Special Olympics figure skating program, she gained sports skills and social confidence. Preparing for the coming games in Pyeongchang, her mother says, “She’s been skating up a storm. She’s at the rink four times a week, two hours a session.”