Special Olympics athletes bring home the gold

SOUTH AFRICA gets gold. The South African floor hockey team from rural villages in the Limpopo province returned with god medals from the 2009 Special Olympics World Winter Games in Boise, Idaho, USA.
Fourteen team members returned home on 16 February after beating Ecuador 2-0 in the floor hockey finals.
The Special Olympics South Africa team competed in Division 4 where they came up against experienced teams from Kuwait, Ecuador, Honduras and the United States. Six days of tight competitions saw the all male team lose only two games during the opening rounds before defeating Kuwait in the semi-final. The final was played in front of a capacity crowd at the Idaho Expo Centre and saw the skill of the South Africans outplay the physical game of the Ecuadorians.
“I am so proud of these athletes,” said head coach Samuel Maduwa. “There was never a moment during the last eight months when they stopped believing that they could win gold and seeing their faces when they were awarded their medals made me finally understand the depth of their determination. To them this is not the end, this victory is the beginning.”
Lucas Radebe, Special Olympics South Africa Ambassador echoed Maduwa’s words upon hearing of the team’s victory. “Congratulations, yes, yes, yes. I knew that these young men could do just that. Let all of South Africa start celebrating, not just this win, but the accomplishments that can be achieved by any individual with an intellectual disability.”
The floor hockey team comprises 14 Special Olympics athletes stemming from various special schools and protective training workshops that cater for individuals with an intellectual disability. Since their selection at the Special Olympics South Africa National Winter Games in June 2008, the team trained weekly in classrooms using makeshift goalposts and attended training camps monthly in Johannesburg to expose them to the official playing conditions.
Delegation head Mariamo Mustuafa said: “The athletes had little exposure to the winter sport of floor hockey and were confined to training in cramped classrooms and with inadequate equipment, but they adapted quickly to the surface in Idaho and improved with every game.”
The 2009 Special Olympics World Winter Games attracted over 2000 athletes from 85 nations, surpassing the figures reached during the Salt Lake City Winter Olympic Games held in 2002.
United States Vice President Joe Biden said that since being introduced to Special Olympics in 1973: “I didn’t know then how extensive the movement is worldwide.” Biden visited the figure skating competition and presented medals to the athletes during their award ceremonies.
“What lives in the heart of every one of these young athletes — as my mother would say, lives in every heart — is the bravery, the tenacity, the grit, and determination,” Biden said. “I want to tell you how proud I am to be here.”
The 2009 Special Olympics World Winter Games concluded with a closing ceremony on February 13.

source: Lenasia Indicator