This victory is twice as nice

WHEN KINGS MEET-Twin brothers Kevin and Steven King, front row, of Agoura Hills meet festival kings Don and Ron Myers of Clarion County, Pa. at the 37th annual Twins Days festival in Twinsburg, Ohio. Many people saw double- even triple and quadruple-at the 31st annual Twins Day Festival in Twinsburg, Ohio.

The King family of Agoura Hills, which includes identical twin boys Steven and Kevin, participated in the festival in early August. The family won a bronze medal in the "Most Alike Males" for the 9and 10-yearold division.

"Of course I see two different faces," Julie King said of her sons. But most people can't distinguish one from the other.

The festival hosted 1,985 sets of multiples, from twins to quintuplets. King said this year's event was the largest known annual gathering of twins in the world, as documented by the Guinness Book of World Records.

The festival featured games, food, parades, contests, fireworks and photo ops, but scientific experiments and discoveries borne out by twin research are also showcased each year.

There were Elvis twins, twin grand marshals and even a "royal court" composed of twin kings, queens, princesses and princes, King said.

Ohio State University, which regularly conducts research on twins, work that is considered the gold standard in natural research, collected data this year on the tastes of twins. Twins were asked to taste different brands of salsa.

Harvard University compared "depth sensitivity" of identical and fraternal twins, while the University of California conducted research on "behavioral economics."

The University Hospitals of Cleveland used the event to gather data on the effect of environment and genetics on disorders of the skin and hair.

The National Institute on Deafness is studying the heritability of auditory processing abilities. Development instability, women's health care, dental care and other research was also conducted by other universities and research organizations.

As research has demonstrated, the tendency to bear twins often runs in families. Although Julie King doesn't have any on her side of the family, her husband, Curt, stems from a family with many sets of twins. His grandmother is a sister to triplets.

Although Kevin and Steven are identical to the eye, Julie King said the boys' personalities are very different. One loves peanut butter, one hates the lunchtime staple. But both boys love sports and enjoy playing with many of the same toys.

So what's the best thing about having a twin? According to Steven, it's just cool to have brothers. Steven's younger sibling, Jeffrey, was called the "short triplet" at the festival.

Kevin, however, has had some fun tricking family and friends by pretending to be Steven.

"Winning the medals was the best part" of the festival, Steven said.