Special Olympics World Games commence

With 7,000 athletes representing 177 countries and participating in 25 different sports, the Special Olympics World Games is an event you don’t want to miss!

Alan said the bocce coaches, Angie Schmidling and Carolyn Goff, handle all the arrangements for the athletes, down to arranging practice time at Cascade Indoor Sports, which has a synthetic surface similar to the one used at the Los Angeles Convention Center during the World Games.

There were also appearances by First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, Jimmy Kimmel, actress Eva Longoria and Olympic star Michael Phelps, among many others.

The 6,500 athletes from 165 delegations simply marched in with their arms stretched high, as if punching through stereotypes, stretching past expectations, reaching beyond dreams.

“With all the great things (we did), I think we won the bid when we took (the worldwide selection committee) to a Laker game”, McClenahan said.

McClenahan described the opening ceremony as “a music celebration of 6,500 athletes and their coaches”. The Special Olympics is finally here. In twenty-five activities, for that subsequent seven days, symbolizing NUMBER8212; the Specific Olympians & the largest fitness gathering in La considering that the 1984 Olympics is going to be Showmanshipis best celebrities.

The crowd awaits Stevie Wonder, Michelle Obama and the lighting of the Olympic torch during the Special Olympics World Games opening ceremonies July 25.

“It makes a lot of sense that these Games began in America, for we are a nation founded on the principle that all of us are created equal”, President Obama said in a message to athletes via satellite Saturday night.

Even the President and First Lady got involved. “You are the ones that will make a difference every single day”.

For months, it has been little more than a curious promotional slogan, an attempt to excite the city about a Special Olympics World Games that many did not quite understand.

Brightfield Shadi, a 25-year-old from Botswana, stood before a media contingent Saturday afternoon and talked about what the Special Olympics has given him. It was in harmony with the Special Olympics motto: “Let me win, but if I can not win, let me be courageous in the attempt”. She said she believed everybody should have a chance to feel special. Griffith’s mother, Clausine Honda, agreed and signed her up, and Griffith continues to practice at Broadway Gymnastics School in Los Angeles.