Jun 18 - Special Olympics Gibraltar To Hold 33rd National Games This Week
Special Olympics Gibraltar will be holding their 33rd Gibraltar National Games this week.
Fifty years ago, the first Special Olympics Games were held in the USA in Chicago. Eunice Kennedy Shriver organised a competitive games event for 1,000 special needs athletes from the U.S. and Canada.
A spokesperson from Special Olympics Gibraltar said: "From that first event the Special Olympics movement rapidly grew into a Worldwide organisation in which today more than 5 million athletes train and compete in over 100,000 events each year in 172 nations.
"To mark the occasion we will be holding a number of events including a gala dinner in November, and on the 20th July, which is the global Day of Inclusion, the Moorish Castle will be lit up with the Special Olympics logo. It will also be at the forefront of everyone's minds when the athletes march into the Victoria Stadium this Wednesday for the Opening Ceremony of our own National Games.
This year teams from the Isle of Man, Barbate and Algeciras will be competing in the games.
Five-a-side football will be at 10am on Thursday. Swimming will be at 6pm on Friday at the GASA swimming pool. Additionally, for the first time ever, there will also be a ten pin bowling competition. This will take place at 10:30am on Friday at the King's Bastion Leisure Centre.
Members of the public are invited to come along and support the athletes. The Opening Ceremony is at 6 pm on Wednesday and will including the lighting of the Olympic flame, followed by displays from Danza Academy, Yalta Urban Dance and Stylos Dance Group.
A spokesperson said: "2018 is also a special year for the Law Enforcement Torch Run (LETR) in Gibraltar as it celebrates the 30th anniversary of its formation as the main fund raising body for Special Olympics Gibraltar. Over the years a huge amount of money has been raised by the members of the agencies who go to make up LETR, whose support has benefitted our athletes enormously. It has helped to provide coaches training programmes and sponsored athletes to attend major games. LETR has also played an important role in the international torch run organisation, providing torch carriers in the law enforcement torch runs held before World Games and will this September be hosting a conference in Gibraltar for international LETR bodies.”
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