Kester Edwards

Kester is a Manager in the Games and Competition Department and focuses his work around Sports development and growing our sport initiatives. Kester became involved in Special Olympics at eight years old and has participated in aquatics, athletics, football, basketball, volleyball and floor hockey.

He was selected to represent Special Olympics Trinidad and Tobago at the Special Olympics World Games in 1987 in Indiana, earning both a silver and bronze medal in aquatics and in 1991 in Minneapolis, winning a gold medal in football.

In 1995, he served as an official at the aquatic’s venue at the Special Olympics World Summer Games in Connecticut.

In June 2001, Kester accepted an offer from Special Olympics Inc. as a Coordinator for Special Olympic.

In 2004, Kester competed in the RCP Tiburon Mile Open Water Swim near San Francisco, California with a group of Special Olympics athletes from Ireland, Israel, China, Hong Kong, Latin America and California. He then competed in this event for the next 6 years alongside many Special Olympics athletes. Because of his passion and expertise in open water swimming, Kester successfully championed Special Olympics leadership and convinced them to offer open water swimming as an official Special Olympics sport.

The International Olympic Committee introduced the 10K open water swim at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. Kester saw that as an opportunity to mirror the Olympic Games and bring open water swim to Special Olympics. During the Special Olympics World Summer Games in July 2011 in Athens, Greece, his dream became a reality when 35 Special Olympics athletes took part in the very first open water swimming event for Special Olympics – a 1500-meter demonstration in the Aegean Sea.

Over the course of his 35+ year journey with Special Olympics (20 years employed), Kester has taken a lead role in expanding open water swimming by facilitating training at 15 coaching clinics, training 250 coaches across 7 regions. He also had the opportunity to offer a coaches training in partnership with Special Olympics Global Ambassador Michael Phelps and the Michael Phelps Foundation.

For the 2010 Special Olympics Latin America Regional Games in Puerto Rico, Kester helped establish the first-ever triathlon event for Special Olympics globally - bringing 28 athletes from 6 nations to compete. This grueling test of strength and endurance challenged athletes in a combined swimming, cycling and running event. This event was instrumental in helping change perceptions of people with intellectual disabilities. He has also excelled as a trainer, working to condition Special Olympics athletes training and competing in aquatics.

For the 2014 Special Olympics USA Games in New Jersey, Kester helped lead an effort with the Sports department to encourage athletes competing in the Games to focus on better nutrition and overall physical fitness. He partnered with First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move Campaign,” to encourage more people with disability to add physical activity to their lives. Over 1,000 athletes, families and friends took part in the campaign and received the Presidential Active Lifestyle Award (PALA+), which awarded them for achieving their fitness goals.

Kester is the first Special Olympics athlete from Trinidad and Tobago to be appointed to the Special Olympics International Board of Directors, where he was appointed in 1997 and served on the Rules Committee. In 1998, he was selected to be one of the very first Sargent Shriver International Global Messengers. In June 2001, he accepted an offer from Special Olympics International to become a Coordinator for Special Olympics' Health and Research Initiatives and support the Regional Growth Division. Now Kester is working on developing a new concept call Unified Beach Games for the movement.

At the 2017 Winter Games in Austria George Pierce and Kester team up together bring 3,000 pair of shoes to Healthy Athletes. Bob, Pierce and Kester team up together again at the 2019 World Games in Abu Dhabi bring more then 7,000 pair of athletic shoes. In May 2017, Kester received the Melvin Jones Fellowship on behalf of Lions Clubs International, recognizing his long-time dedication to the organization. He is the first Special Olympics athlete to ever receive this award is a member of the Washington DC (Special Olympics) Lions Club and lives and works in Washington, D.C.