It may not be the Olympic games, but for the contestants it's an Olympic achievement.

The U.S. Transplant Games, an event modeled after the Olympics, will attract about 1,600 athletes to Orlando, Fla., this week, including four northwest Ohio men.

That includes Olympic bronze medalist Chris Klug, a snowboarder who had a liver transplant in 2000 and went on to compete in the 2002 Winter Olympics.

The athletes are organ recipients who have worked to get and stay in shape following their transplants. For some, it has been an event they've competed in for a decade or more; for others, it's a new experience.

The games, which begin Wednesday and last until Sunday, are open to heart, liver, kidney, lung, pancreas, and bone marrow recipients.

Northwest Ohio will be represented by Ernie Prado, Bill Chidester, Jerry Shoemaker, and Butch Kruez, who are sponsored by Life Connection, a local organ-procurement organization. Team Ohio's 40 athletes will be accompanied by about 90 relatives and an organ-donor family, said Vickie Nortz, the state's team manager.

The games showcase the success of organ donation and allow organ recipients a chance to talk with each other, she said.

“The whole thing has to be that you're trying to take care of your own organ, your own body, and in the long run, promote organ donation,” Mr. Chidester said.

The four athletes, representing lung, kidney, and liver recipients are competing in swimming, fast walking, golfing, tennis, and bowling events.

Mr. Chidester, 52, will compete in the 1,500-meter fast walk and tennis doubles. The pastor at Sylvania United Church of Christ, he received a liver 13 years ago and attended the U.S. games twice before, winning a medal in 1998 at Columbus in the 1,500-meter fast walk.

This year's games in Florida hold a special attraction. “I've never been to Disney World. I figure this is a good chance to do both,” he said.

For Mr. Chidester, the games are a motivation to exercise and stay in shape, along with a chance to make connections with other transplant recipients.

He leads the Transplant Recipients International Organization in Toledo, a support group for organ recipients. He also serves on the Second Chance trust fund advisory board, an educational fund for organ donation.

Ernie Prado, 57, has gone to nearly every Transplant Games - world games included - since the late 1980s, and he's won 30 medals. This year, he'll compete in five swimming events.

The 10 gold, eight silver, and 12 bronze medals represent years of cycling, weightlifting, and swimming.

Mr. Prado, who doesn't work, received a kidney in 1985 and rarely misses the games, only staying home when he had heart surgery and when he was hit by a car while bicycling. “The games are really a lot of fun. You meet a lot of interesting people,” he said. The games also are a place to find out how other organ recipients are dealing with their transplant.

At one of the first games he attended, Mr. Prado was able to talk with other transplant recipients about how to reduce the amount of drugs he was taking. “I am amazed sometimes,” he said, when he sees the number and types of transplants the athletes have had. “It's unbelievable how far medicine has come in the art of transplantation.”

Jerry Shoemaker, 61, will bowl and golf at this year's games, activities he's been doing since he first attended the games in the early 1990s. He attended both the United States and world games regularly after he received a kidney in 1990 from his wife.

Mr. Shoemaker has never won a medal, but continues to go - the games are a chance to meet old friends and people he's met before. It's a chance to see how everyone is doing, and at the same time “show people there is a life after a transplant,” he said.

Mr. Shoemaker, who lives in Greenwich, Ohio, in Huron County, golfs throughout the summer and bowls in leagues two nights a week in the winter, in addition to working full time as a loan officer and serving as president of Greenwich Village Council. He also plans to attend next year's international transplant games in France.

Butch Kruez, 62, is a first-time participant in the U.S. Transplant Games, but no stranger to golf, his chosen sport. It's something he's been doing since high school.

Mr. Kruez received a lung transplant in 1998, and took several months to rehabilitate, returning to the hospital numerous times following the transplant. Now he works part-time as a barber.

For him, the games are a new opportunity to meet other lung recipients and to show the active life people can have after a transplant. “It's very hard for people to comprehend how good these guys are. They think these people are transplants, they're just duds, but we're pretty darn good,” he said.

They're so good that Mr. Kruez, with a low golf handicap, doesn't know what his chances will be. “I'm just about as nervous as the day is long,” he said. But he's also excited about the opportunities.

“I'm not going down there to play with Mickey and Goofy. I'm going down there to play in the U.S. games,” he said.

First Published June 24, 2002, 3:35 p.m.