Stunning victory for Team Ireland as athletes claim — Special Olympics

That was when the team visited the Healthy Athletes Program set up to do free examinations and outfit athletes with glasses, proper-fitting shoes, dental care and hearing aids.

Athletes competed in 25 different sports at venues throughout Los Angeles.

“People don’t realize how big of a deal this is”, said Barnes, a special education teacher at Brewster who has followed the team’s progress from home.

Gary (19) whose club is the Menni Services said he had started swimming in school.

“Never”, she said. “Not even close”. “She has competed in a lot of competitions around the world, and also in Panama, national and globally, and she has done very well”. The official score was 4-1. “They are obviously disappointed but it’s important they pick themselves back up now”.

Speaking on the final day, Team Ireland CEO Matt English said each and every team member put in an extraordinary performance.

The curtains come down on the 2015 World Games on Sunday 2nd of August with a closing ceremony at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum featuring singer songwriter Carly Rae Jepsen and Victoria Arlen, Paralympic gold medallist. Sure, they love the athleticism they see when one of our track athletes does a personal best and wins a medal in the 200-meter dash.

“It’s going really well”, said Christine McVeigh from Lurgan, who is one of 155 volunteers who travelled to LA to support Team Ireland. “We went to sleep for a little while but towards the end our defence picked up and our shooting got a bit better”, she said.

A five-minute video showed highlights of the competitions and a flame that was lit in the Coliseum cauldron at the game opening was extinguished.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny is the latest to add his voice to messages of goodwill. I saw you with Colin Farrell and Claudine Keane – neither will mind when I say that you were the real superstars on the night.

Eight golden medals have been achieved so far by Ahmed Beshir in shot put, Amro Abd-almaguid and Mohamed El-gharbi in equestrian, Mahmoud Khalil in the 200 meter running competition, Mariam Youssef and Mohamed Ahmed in freestyle swimming and two medals by Shaymaa Ahmed in singles table tennis. I remember sitting at home feeling very depressed about my involvement in sport. We were so nervous and now we’re so proud of all the kayakers. Meeting all of the athletes and walking out amongst the Irish team is such a great honour.

As they hope to push the movement in the Philippines, this 2015 world games have made the Pinoy athletes into winners and stars.