Sports Envoy
Sports Envoy Program

Region: Middle East

Greg Meyer

Running

Served as envoy

  • 2018  –  Egypt

Greg Meyer was the last American man to win the Boston Marathon (in 2:09.00 in 1983). He set American road racing records at 8k, 10k, 15k, 25k, and ten miles, and established world bests in the 15K (at Gasparilla in Tampa, FL) and ten miles (the Cherry Blossom Ten Mile in Washington, DC). He was also a sub-4:00 miler. Meyer was nominated for the Sullivan Award as America’s top amateur athlete in 1983. He has been inducted into the ESPN Road Racing, Road Runners Club of America, and Grand Rapids Sports Halls of Fame. Besides Boston, Meyer won the 1980 Detroit and 1982 Chicago Marathons and was the River Bank Run 25K champ seven times. Meyer is the University of Michigan’s Regional Director for Planned Giving.

Lisa Rainsberger

Running

Served as envoy

  • 2018  –  Egypt

Lisa Larsen Rainsberger, previously known as Lisa Larsen Weidenbach, (born May 7, 1961) is a distance runner. She is a member of the University of Michigan Track and Field and Road Runners of America Halls of Fame. Her marathon times were among the top ten in the US in 1984 and 1987–1994. As of 2008, she was listed four times in the top 100 all-time US women’s marathon performances, with a best time of 2:28:15.

In 1984, she ran the inaugural women’s Olympic marathon trials where she finished fourth, missing a spot in the Olympic games. In 1985, she won the Boston Marathon in a time of 2:34:06. An American did not win the Boston Marathon again until 2018, 33 years later, when Desiree Linden ran to victory. Rainsberger finished first back-to-back in the Chicago Marathon in 1988 (2:29:17) and 1989 (2:28:15), something no American woman has repeated since. She had run in numerous other distance races on the track and road, in the United States and abroad (notably Japan’s Hokkaido Marathon).

Rainsberger ended her 12-year career of professional competition after a final attempt to become a professional triathlete and training for the Olympics. She now focuses on her family and coaching. She coaches members of the Army’s world class athlete program, and her daughter, Katie Rainsberger, who is a champion in her own right.

Thomas Grilk

Running

Served as envoy

  • 2018  –  Egypt

Thomas S. Grilk, Chief Executive Officer | Boston Athletic Association | Boston Marathon

Tom Grilk is the Chief Executive Officer of the Boston Athletic Association | Boston Marathon, taking on that role in January of 2011. He served as President of the B.A.A. Board of Governors from 2003 until 2011.

In addition to his duties as Chief Executive Officer, he served as the marathon’s finish line announcer from 1979 through 2013, and he is a former marathon competitor, with a personal best of 2:49 and a personal best at Boston of 2:54.

He was for many years a corporate and business lawyer, both with the Boston law firm Hale and Dorr and serving as counsel and general counsel to Boston area technology companies. He is a graduate of Cornell University and the University of Michigan Law School.

Lillian Narvaez

Special Olympics

Served as envoy

  • 2020  –  United Arab Emirates

Lillian Narvaez is a coach for the Special Olympics. In 1987, she was chosen to coach the women’s basketball team that went to the World Summer Games in Indiana and after joined the Special Olympics New Jersey staff as a Program Representative. In 1989, she became the training director and the 1995 became VP of Sports.

Scott Weaver

Special Olympics

Served as envoy

  • 2020  –  United Arab Emirates

Scott Weaver is the Senior Manager of Unified Sports and Sports Education for Special Olympics North America. His primary focus in this position is to support further development of Unified Sports and Sports Education (Coaches, Games Management, Competition Management, etc.) throughout the United States, Canada and Caribbean.

Scott’s entire career has been in the non-profit industry, spending 21 years in Special Olympics and the past 11 years as the CEO of the Arthritis Foundation’s Great West Region based in Seattle. His Special Olympics experience began in college as a fundraising and event management volunteer at Slippery Rock University. His college experience included an internship with Special Olympics Massachusetts where upon graduating he returned to work for the Northshore Arc and Special Olympics Massachusetts as the Area Training Director for Essex County.

After 4 years in New England, Scott was drawn to west and took a position as the Director of Sports and Training for Special Olympics Colorado before moving even further west to work for Special Olympics Washington. In 1995 Scott return to Colorado were he became the President/CEO of Special Olympics Colorado. During his tenure with Special Olympics, Scott was involved with the start of Unified Sports in Massachusetts as a coach and partner, developing Unified Sports in Washington and Colorado, implementing coaches training programs, developing innovative community-based sport programs, organizing events, volunteer management, participated on Special Olympics USA, was a technical delegate for snowshoeing at the World Winter Games in Anchorage and served on the International Sports Rules Committee.

In 2005 Scott left Special Olympics and continued his non-profit career with the Arthritis Foundation. As the CEO Scott led a staff of 52 in providing community-based programs and raising funds in support of research and clinical fellowship trainings in a nine state region. After 11 years with the Arthritis Foundation Scott and his wife Mary were drawn to Charlotte, NC to be closer to their three granddaughters. They made the move back east in August 2016 and Scott reconnected with Special Olympics North America in his new role on October 1, 2016.

Alice Moat

Special Olympics Swimming

Served as envoy

  • 2013  –  Egypt

I have been a Special Olympics swimming coach for more than 25 years, serving as Head Coach of the Bethlehem Pennsylvania team for the 20 years. I am also the Pennsylvania Aquatics Sport Director, providing a liaison between the state competition staff and other volunteer aquatics coaches. In this position, I provide Special Olympics skills certification training to coaches, write articles on coaching tips, and help coaches with training and competition issues. I have been Aquatics Venue Coordinator at sectional and state competitions for the past 20 years, and I was the Head Aquatics Coach for Team PA USA at the 1999 World Games in North Carolina, and for the Pennsylvania team at National Games in 2010.

I am also a member of the local Bethlehem Special Olympics management team, currently serving as Manager, and previously as Volunteer Coordinator, Database Coordinator, Sports & Competition Coordinator, and Fundraising Coordinator.

I am currently retired, but previously worked for 31 years at PPL, Inc. (electric utility company) in the Fossil Fuels, Environmental and Information Services Departments.

Outside of Special Olympics, I am a lifetime member and volunteer for Girl Scouts and I help with science lessons at a local elementary school.

I have a sister with Down Syndrome who is a Special Olympics athlete in Virginia.

Denis Crean

Special Olympics Swimming

Served as envoy

  • 2013  –  Egypt

Denis is an active marathon open water swimmer and the founder and CEO of WaveOne Swimming, an internationally recognized open water swimming organization. Denis organizes races, swim clinics, and events and develops swim programs for teams and organizations worldwide. Denis is a USA Swimming and USMS certified Coach. His 25 years of pool and open water training and racing give him the experience and expertise to cover a broad range of swim topics, including the fundamentals of swimming; stroke technique and proper body positioning; advanced pace/interval/distance training; and open water race preparation, safety, and strategy techniques.

Denis is an avid open water swimmer and competitor, with an accomplished race record of over 250 racing miles including:
• 1st place: Tampa Bay 24-mile Marathon Swim (2004);
• 2nd place (male), 3rd place (overall): 28.5 mile Manhattan Island Marathon Swim (2006);
• 2nd place (male), 4th place (overall): 41k Lake George Marathon Swim (2007);
• 1st place (age group), 5th place (overall): 5.85 mile Little Red Lighthouse Swim (2009);
• 5th overall Swim Around Governors Island (2012);
• 1st place (age group) Frogman 5K (2013)
2013 highlights:
• Handpicked to participate as a coach in USA Swimming’s National Team open water training camp.
• Creator of the Inaugural Aloha Splash Pool Open Water Race on April 6, 2013

Kester Edwards

Special Olympics Swimming

Served as envoy

  • 2013  –  Egypt

Kester Edwards became involved in Special Olympics at age eight and has participated in aquatics, athletics, football, basketball, volleyball and floor hockey. Being a disciplined athlete he did well and was selected in 1987 and 1991 to represent Special Olympics Trinidad and Tobago at the International Special Olympics Games where he won a gold medal in football and both silver and bronze in aquatics.
In 1995, he served as an official at the Aquatics venue at the Special Olympics World Summer Games in Connecticut. He has also excelled as a trainer, working to condition Special Olympics athletes in Aquatics.
As the first Special Olympics athlete from Trinidad and Tobago appointed to Special Olympics Inc. Board of Directors, serve on the Rules committee and the first class of Special Olympics Former International Global Messenger.

In June 2001, Kester accepted an offer from Special Olympics Inc. as a Coordinator for Special Olympics’ Health and Research Initiatives, as well as the Regional Growth Division and now my position is Sport department and a member of the Washington DC (Special Olympics) Lions Club.

Gail Morning

Special Olympics Swimming

Served as envoy

  • 2013  –  Egypt

See Ree Seo was born in Seoul, South Korea on September 14, 1983. She was adopted by the Morning family through Philadelphia Catholic Social Services and given the name Gail Lynn in December of 1983. Shortly thereafter, Gail was diagnosed as developmentally delayed and she became a member of the Special Olympics family at the age of five. She participated in many sports including gymnastics, volleyball and tennis winning numerous gold medals in local and county competitions.

Recently, Gail has focused on five sports, bocce, bowling, power lifting, swimming and tennis. Gail was fortunate enough to be chosen to represent the United States at two Special Olympics World Games competitions. In 2003 she traveled to Dublin, Ireland and won three gold medals in power lifting. In 2007, Gail was a member of the U.S. swimming team and won a bronze medal as part of the women’s relay team.
Gail continues to train and hopes to represent the United States again at the 2015 World Games being held in California.

Danielle Scott-Arruda

Volleyball

Served as envoy

  • 2019  –  Fiji
  • 2021  –  United Arab Emirates

Danielle was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and is a single mother of her daughter Juliánne. She attended the University of California at Long Beach and graduated with a Bachelors degree in Liberal Studies with an emphasis in Sociology. After competing in five Olympic Games, she became the USA Indoor Volleyball Olympic appearance record holder, Danielle has now touched and inspired thousands of boys and girls, women and men, teams and corporations around the nation by sharing the same methods she used to win two silver Olympic medals, and become inducted in multiple Halls of Fame. Danielle is also a crusader for financial literacy and helping families make and save money. She has spoken at women’s leadership conferences, empowering girls programs, schools, churches, athletic events and fundraisers. Since 2014, Danielle has been working with USA Volleyball’s High Performance Program.