Special Olympian Representing New York City at Upcoming Games

BRONX, N.Y. — When Valerie Romero’s mother used to bring her on the sidewalk outside of their Morris Park Ave. home in the Bronx when she was a child, everyone would have to keep an eye out for her so she wouldn’t get anywhere near the street and the cars rushing by.

“We had to run and catch her,” Nancy Romero said. “If you’d bring her out here she would just run, run, run, run. In the park, too.”

Many years later, Valerie Romero is still running. And people are still trying to catch up to her.

Romero, now 44, is one of the 3,500 athletes who will compete in the Special Olympics USA Games in Mercer County, N.J., next week.