The longest-serving athlete : Pioneering Special Olympian dies chicagotribune.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from chicagotribune.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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When Michael Cusack jumped into the pool, he was all business confident, unflappable and certainly not troubled by a pair of swim trunks that wouldn’t stay on.
So when he started to fall behind in a race in California in 1971, he didn’t hesitate.
“He just kicked them off and finished the race naked and won,” said Connie Cusack McIntosh, one of his four sisters.
Mr. Cusack amassed hundreds of medals many of them gold during a Special Olympics career that spanned almost four decades and began during the first ever event at Soldier Field in 1968. He was just 12 at the time, his sister said.