It was a thrilling week inside the NSC Sports Hall as pickleball made its official Special Olympics USA Games debut. The week was full of close finishes and exciting storylines. One athlete that stood out throughout the week was CJ Gallagher of Virginia. I met Gallagher on Tuesday morning after he and his unified partner Robert Luk finished the preliminary round undefeated. Their success secured their spot in Division 1 for the unified male/mixed doubles medal round. After I heard more about Gallagher’s story, I developed a quick bond with him. Little did I know, his USA Games story had only just begun.

The video below encapsulates CJ’s story over the course of the week:

Gallagher put himself on the map right away Wednesday morning when he and his unified partner Robert Luk came back from a 10-3 deficit to win 14-12 in the rubber match of a best-of-3 series against John Eckart and Ken Petterson of Missouri. It was truly the most dramatic, exciting, and emotional pickleball match of the entire week. You can watch the full comeback in the video below:

While Gallagher did not win the gold medal in Wednesday’s unified doubles round, the gold went to his Virginia teammates Dominick “Doc” Powell and Keith Walker.

On Thursday, the competition shifted from unified doubles to what was known as “traditional” doubles, in which Special Olympics athletes paired up with each other as opposed to playing with a unified partner. For Team Virginia, Gallagher and Powell, who had faced off in the gold medal match of unified doubles, had the chance to play as a team in traditional doubles.

Gallagher and Powell were placed in Division 1 alongside Amy Price/Thomas Cannon of Arkansas and Adam Johnson/Whitney Spielman of Florida. The Virginians won their match against Arkansas comfortably, winning both games 11-3. The match against Florida started off with Virginia winning an 11-0 game, also known as a pickle. However, Gallagher and Powell found themselves down 8-4 in the second game of the match.

While Gallagher had won his first three games of the day with relative ease, he needed to draw upon his comeback skills to win his final game of the week. As a result, Gallagher and Powell won seven unanswered points to win Game Two 11-8 and secure the Division 1 gold medal. You can see that comeback below:

I had the chance to speak with both Gallagher and Powell after their match in the interview below:

In addition to Gallagher and Powell, two other pairs won gold medals in Thursday’s action. The Division 2 gold in traditional doubles went to Carter Jones and Rogan Rivers of Tennessee, and the Division 3 gold went to Caroline Shin and Tim Hodgins of Florida. The graphic below contains the full results for all divisions of each pickleball event:

See some other notable storylines below:

• Florica Gault and Jennie Petterson of Missouri were initially placed in unified female doubles ahead of the preliminary rounds. Because they were so successful, officials switched them into the unified male/mixed doubles competition, where they were placed in the Division 2 ladder for the medal round. Even though they were switched to a more competitive division, Gault and Petterson finished their week with a 9-0 record (7-0 preliminary round, 2-0 medal round) and came home with the gold.
• Terreance Upson and Amy Ingram of South Carolina finished competition in the Division 4 ladder with a 1-1 record, but ultimately won gold on a point differential tiebreaker. They finished ladder competition with a +4 point margin, two points ahead of silver medalists Scott Larue and Aidan Petterson.
• Amy Price and Megan Slayton of Arkansas made Arkansas one of just two states to win a Division 1 gold medal in pickleball. They defeated the Floridian mother/daughter duo of Marsha Ximanies and Lindsay Ximanies as well as the duo of Anna McDaniel and Hillary James of Missouri to secure the gold. Team Virginia won both of the other Division 1 golds in pickleball thanks to the efforts of Gallagher, Powell, and Walker.

I had a blast covering pickleball at its official USA Games debut. Between building bonds with athletes and watching some of the most thrilling finishes I’ve seen on a pickleball court, this past week in Minnesota is one I will never forget.

This USA Games was also my third covering Level 5 golf, and my next post will focus on the biggest moments from Victory Links.