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Florida man becomes 1st person with Down Syndrome to finish Ironman

Special Olympics/Twitter

Chris Nikic, a 21-year-old from Maitland, Florida, made history Sunday as the first person with Down Syndrome to complete an Ironman Triathlon.

Nikic finished the race - a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride, and 26.2-mile run - within the 17-hour time limit to earn the Ironman title and a spot in the Guinness World Records book.

"The doctors and experts said I couldn't do anything," Nikic said ahead of the race, according to Kate Santich of the Orlando Sentinel. "So I said, 'Doctor! Experts! You need to stop doing this to me. You're wrong!'"

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IRONMAN. Goal set and achieved. Time to set a new and BIGGER Goal for 2021. Whatever it is the strategy is the same. 1% Better every day. YES, I did the work but I had angels helping me. God surrounded me with Angels. Best part of all. New family and friends. All about awareness and inclusion. Awareness for Down Syndrome and Special Olympics. Inclusion for all of us with all of you. I’m sorry for not responding personally to all your messages. It’s amazing but overwhelming because I got 33K new followers and messages since yesterday. I will try and catch up. If you want to support my mission for Down Syndrome and Special Olympics go to my website www.ChrisNikic.com because 100% of the donations go to my charities. I achieved my goal and now I want to help others like me. Thank you to @ironmantri and @im_foundation for making it possible. Thank you @specialolympics @specialolympicsfl for starting the triathlon program. Thank you @rodsracing for giving a home to babies like me. I will be thanking so many more people over the coming days. But I must start with the 3 Angels who trained with me and did the race with me. Dan, Jenn and Carlos. #inclusion

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