As Dusty Cichon climbed the podium to accept his third gold medal of the 2007 Special Olympics International Games, a chorus of cheers arose from spectators crammed into a Shanghai, China coliseum.
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Cichon soaked it in — smiling like he always does — while the crowd alternated chants in unison.
Those who could speak English screamed "Little Big Man.” All others simply yelled "Din Din.”
The 4-foot-3, 103-pound sparkplug was a long way from his home in Wann, a tiny town about 20 miles south of Coffeyville, Kan.
And yet there he stood, receiving unconditional acceptance as though he were surrounded by thousands of friends and family.
"It was pretty cool to hear them cheering,” said Cichon, 20, who will compete at the Special Olympics Oklahoma Games today through Friday in Stillwater. "They called me Little Big Man and Din Din. (That) means happiness and good fortune.”
Cichon's nicknames haven't always been bestowed in admiration.
Not too long ago, he was tagged with a much crueler epithet.
Midget.
As a youngster, Cichon was diagnosed with Achondroplasia, an autosomal dominant genetic disorder which causes dwarfism — he also suffers a slight intellectual disability, but is considered high-functioning.
Victims of Achondroplasia typically have normal-sized heads and torsos but small legs and arms. Amy Roloff of TLC's "Little People, Big World” has the same disorder.
"The doctor told us that it's one of those deals where God just says, ‘OK, it's going to happen here,'” said Dusty's adopted mother Vera Cichon. "It's not inherited, just random.”
Dusty always wanted to compete in sports, but it took him a while to find his niche.
He started playing little league baseball in elementary school.
It wasn't the right fit.
"He just made it a couple of years and it didn't work out real good,” Vera said. "But Dusty had to play sports of some kind. He loves to compete.”
Vera and her husband Ronnie learned of a private wrestling club in Bartlesville. They enrolled Dusty and his normal-sized biological brother Evert, despite apprehension from the club coaches.
"They didn't think he'd have a lot of success because of the shortness of his limbs,” Ronnie Cichon said. "The very first year he wrestled at the novice level and won state.”
Dusty met similar skepticism when he attempted to try out for his eighth-grade wrestling team.
He told the coach he wanted to wrestle on the first team and would do so at any cost. The coach told him he'd have to beat the boy wrestling at his weight to earn a spot.
So Dusty did just that.
"He is not shy,” said Sandy Bliss, Cichon's teacher at Bartlesville Mid-High School. "He is determined. He's always been that way.”
Where Dusty at times faced skepticism from his coaches, he faced sheer intolerance from some teammates and opponents.
Vera remembers one match during mid-high school when an opposing grappler taunted Dusty relentlessly, cursing him and calling him a midget.
After Dusty won the match, he extended his hand to the opponent, who slapped it away.
"That stuff hurts, but I've been getting over it since I was 13,” Dusty said. "It doesn't really bother me anymore.”
Said Bliss: "Dusty has a special charm about him. He will tell you, ‘Hi' even if he doesn't know your name and he will ask you how you're doing today. He's always friendly, no matter how he's treated.”
It was Bliss who first encouraged Dusty to compete at the Special Olympics as a power lifter.
After Dusty suffered a knee injury during his third season on the Bartlesville High School varsity wrestling team, he turned his full attention toward the weights.
Today, he can bench press 343 pounds, squat 402 and dead lift 255.
He shows up to competitions wearing homemade T-shirts which bear taglines like: Attitude not Altitude and It isn't height, it is heart that makes an athlete great.
Last year, he met George W. Bush at the Rose Garden in Washington D.C.
"It was pretty exciting. It kind of shocked me,” Dusty said of his presidential encounter. "I told him my name and where I'm from and what I do and he said, ‘That's fantastic. I'm glad to meet you.'”
Most folks are.
Dusty's competitive drive and good-natured spirit has helped him make friends the world over. In Shanghai, he approached the coach of Iraq's Special Olympics team just to tell him he was offering prayers on the country's behalf.
"There aren't a lot of people from this part of the world that would just go up and talk to someone from (the Middle East),” said Vera Cichon. "All (Dusty) wants is to be your friend. He doesn't care where you're from or what you do or what you think of him.”
Little Big Man, indeed.
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Dusty was a great competitor in wrestling. I know the kids admired him not only for his perseverance but enjoyed him for his personality. I never saw Dusty finish a match with out a hug for his opponent. He was well liked by all the kids. I want to wish him luck Oklahoma Special Olympics and best of luck in the future, maybe we will be calling him world champ someday.
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