On the 7th March 2019 we saw the departure of our Special Olympics South Africa National Team as they left to participate in the 2019 Special Olympics World Games in Abu Dhabi, the biggest sporting and humanitarian event in the world.
At the time of writing our National Team has already bagged over 30 medals with 2 days of competition to go!
Runner Kamogelo Moncho and swimmer David Coates have taken the lead with a double Gold win each, with a number of their team mates also bringing home double medals.
Our National team is currently on a tally of 13 Gold, 14 Silver and 12 bronze and are chasing the tally of 15 Gold medals received at the previous Summer World Games in Los Angeles.
Our South Africa team of 71 athletes is competing against over 7 500 athletes from more than 190 countries.
A long list of local celebrities and supporters have posted messages of support for our team though the #backourteam campaign including Letshego Zulu, Kim Jayde, Melanie ‘Hypress’ Ramjee, Lynn Forbes and her superstar son AKA, Dimpie Dimpopo, Riky Rick, Kay Sibiya, Candice Abrahams, Stacey Holland, Bontle Modiselle, Priddy Ugly, Nomuzi Mabena, the cast from Uzalo, Gigi Lemanye, Courtnell Skosan, Lee-Anne Dlamini and Lionel Mapoe amongst many others.
Our Special Olympics South Africa National Team is competing in football, futsal (five-a-side female soccer), table tennis, equestrian, bocce, open-water swimming, athletics, and golf.
The Special Olympics World Games is providing the platform for athletes with and without an intellectual disability to rise above the typical stereotype of daily exclusion by using sports as a catalyst to create an opportunity for athletes to be defined by their abilities rather than their disabilities.
Chairman of Special Olympics South Africa, the honourable Dr Mathews Phosa, commented earlier this today, “Our 2019 Special Olympics South Africa National Team are already on their way to replicating the successes of the previous games and we as a nation are behind them 100%. We look forward to more wins this week while we are already celebrating the current achievements of our super special team. Join me South Africa as we continue to #BackOurTeam.”
Our Special Olympics South African National Team lands this Friday 22nd March 2019 at 10:55am at OR Tambo International.
We invite all South Africans to join us in welcoming back our heroes.