The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

IN their one year lead up to the 2019 Special Olympics World Summer Games, Special Olympics Bahamas is appealing to the general public to throw their support behind their national team as they prepare for the competition and securing the necessary funding to make the trip to Abu Dhabi.

The campaign dubbed: Road to Abu Dhabi, is designed to bring more awareness to Special Olympics in the Bahamas and help in their fundraising efforts to achieve their goal of $104,000 or $2,600 each for the estimated delegation of 40, including coaches and athletes that will compete in Bocce, unified soccer, bowling, swimming and track and field for the games, scheduled for March 8-21, 2019.

Gilbert Williams, who heads the Special Olympic programme in the country, will head the delegation going to Abu Dhabi, assisted by Johnneice Blyden.

He noted that while they have already selected the head coaches for the various disciplines, they are in the process of holding trials for the team members.

“During the course of this year, Special Olympics Bahamas will be putting on several fundraisers and what we’re really asking is for the support of the general public, corporate Bahamas and individuals as well as the media in supporting our programmes and getting the information out so that our programmes can be as successful as they can be,” Williams said.

“We will also be asking individuals, as well as corporate Bahamas, to support us financially, but we want to stress that it’s more than financial support that we are looking for.

“We are hoping and looking for persons to support in person at our various events, particularly our fundraisers, but also our awareness initiatives.”

Among those events are the Bocce national championships, set for April 27-28 in Tarpum Bay, Eleuthera and the national track and field championships on May 26 at the Thomas A Robinson Stadium.

All of the events are free to the general public.

Coming off their appearance at the last World Summer Games in 2015 in Los Angeles, California, Williams said Team Bahamas returned home with 25 medals, inclusive of 10 gold, 11 silver and four bronze and the coaches have assured him that the athletes will perform the same or even better in Abu Dhabi. “We need your support. Whatever we do, we do it for our athletes and it’s about them, but we cannot do what we need to do without the support of corporate Bahamas, sponsors and people to participate to help our programme grow, in terms of volunteers as well,” Blyden said.

Interested persons wishing to assist Special Olympics Bahamas can do so by contacting the Special Olympics Bahamas office on Dolphin Drive or telephone 356-2433, through social media on their facebook page or on Instagram

Special Olympics

Programme

According to Blyden, Special Olympics provide year round training for special athletes with intellectual disabilities.

“Our main focus is to make sure that our athletes have competitive competitions,” she stressed. “At the local level, we make sure all of our athletes have an opportunity to compete. So just like your regular professional athletes who compete on the world stage, this is their equivalent. Just how they get ready to to the Olympics, this is the same for them.

“All over the world, they compete with people of similar disabilities and they get that recognition. Over the years, we’ve participated in many World Games.

“In 2015, we were in LA, 2011, there was Greece and before that, there was China and Ireland and our athletes have been to the top of the top.”

Blyden said that while the athletes may possess intellectual disabilities, they have the capability of being compared to an ordinary Olympic runner or swimmer because of their high level of performances.

“In the Special Olympics World Games in 2015, there were just over 7,000 athletes competing at those games in about 27-28 different sports,” Williams recalled.

“In fact, in 2015, the Special Olympics World Summer Games was the largest sporting event that was held anywhere in the world that particular year.

“So the World Games for Special Olympics is a major, major event and for the Bahamas to be a part of those events is certainly a special opportunity for our athletes, not just to compete with other world athletes, but also for exposure. Many of them when they travel to Special Olympics events, that would have been the first time for many of them to get on a plane. So it’s really great exposure for them and we can see where it has changed the lives of many of the athletes.”

Bowling success

At the last World Games in LA, bowling Whitney Sands, who has been the head coach of the team for the past four years, said they will be looking at a slightly different team, but he anticipates the same type of results. In 2015, the Bahamas had a unified bowling team with two persons without intellectual disabilities and two persons with intellectual abilities and they got the team bronze after they got a gold in doubles and an individual gold from Deangelo Bullard, who is no longer a part of the programme.

“Our preparations today has been going very well. We are just about ready to decide who become members of the upcoming team, but before that, we will have two tournaments that will help us decide who will make the team,” Sands said.

“All of the athletes are training and are hoping to make the team.”

Unified

soccer

Special Olympics Bahamas will be making history as this will be the first time in their 40-year existence that a soccer team will be representing the Bahamas.

“My expectations is for them to go out there and get the exposure and to go out there and do the best that they can do in competing with other athletes from around the world,” said Antesha Culmer, the assistant coach of the soccer team that will comprise of 11 athletes who will get to compete in the seven-a-side competition.

Williams said the unified sports, not just in soccer, but in bowling, is something that Special Olympics International has been pushing for the past 6-7 years where persons without intellectual disabilities team up with persons without intellectual disabilities.

Nakato Seymour and Michael Miller, two of the prospects who hope to be a part of the soccer team, were also present at the press conference, along with Charkea Bain, one of the female track and field stars.