BY NATASHA ASHE
SALISBURY POST

A Salisbury athlete helped ‘‘invite the world’’ to the 1999 Special Olympics World Summer Games Friday morning.

Twenty-three-year-old Christine Wilton is serving as one of many Special Olympic athletes who carried an ‘‘Invitation to the World’’ from their communities and participated in special ceremonies in Raleigh.

Wilton waved to a crowd at the Salisbury Station Friday morning as she boarded the Amtrak train, the Carolinian, for a trip to Raleigh.

Wilton’s mother, Susan, videotaped her daughter as she joined other athletes on the train, which also stopped at High Point, Greensboro, Burlington and Durham, Cary and, finally, Raleigh. Gov. Jim Hunt boarded the train at Durham.

The whistle stop tour, a symbolic gesture of welcome for the Special Olympics World Games, made its way through many cities and communities serving in the Host Town Program for the World Games.

As local high school bands played, with purple, red and yellow streamers brightening the scene, Salisbury Mayor Susan Kluttz welcomed the train, congratulated the athletes and then bid them good-bye as they hurried off to their next stop.

‘‘She was very excited,’’ said Susan Wilton said of her daughter, who has been involved in Special Olympics about 15 years and participated in the World Games in New Haven, Conn., in 1995. That year, Wilton brought home the gold medal all around in gymnastics. More recently, Wilton has focused her skill on tennis.

Judy Newman, local coordinator for the Special Olympics, says officials had several reasons for selecting Wilton as the Salisbury athlete to carry the invitation.

‘‘She was chosen because she has participated in the games. She is essentially independent, and she’s a good ambassador for her county,’’ Newman said.

Wilton won’t participate in the games this year, but her mom says they plan to go as spectators to cheer on several Rowan athletes.

The ‘99 Games will be held in the Triangle area from June 26-July 4 as 7,000 athletes from 150 countries compete in 19 sports. An opening celebration will be held at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh on the first day.

‘‘This is the largest athletic event that will be held in the world’’ this year, Newman said. ‘‘There will be thousands of people who are coming to the state of North Carolina. Many who have never been here before... It’s great exposure.’’

Several athletes will live and train in Rowan County prior to the games. The athletes will stay at Catawba College.

‘‘This really creates a lot of connections between the countries and the local people,’’ Newman added.

Friday’s whistle stop tour, which started at 8 a.m. with the Johnson C. Smith University Band playing at the Charlotte Amtrak Station, marked 99 days from the start of the games.