Members of the Dominica team board a bus after arriving at the Norman Manley International Airport.
-Contributed photo
Kimone Thompson, Gleaner Writer
THE FIRST Special Olympics Caribbean Games gets under way today at 8:30 a.m. with competition in athletics, aquatics, football, cricket and bocce (lawn bowling) at the National Stadium, Mona Bowl and YMCA.
The competition, which runs through to Sunday, has attracted over 400 mentally-retarded athletes from 13 Caribbean countries.
With the exception of a part of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines aggregation that is slated to arrive later, all of the overseas teams are already here for the region's showpiece event for mentally retarded athletes.
Barbados, Curacao and Dominica were the first to get here, having arrived on Tuesday, while Bonaire, the Cayman Islands, St. Lucia, Aruba, The Bahamas, Suriname, St. Kitts/Nevis, Trinidad and Tobago and part of the SVG team flew in yesterday.
Executive director of Special Olympics Jamaica (SOJ), Lorna Bell, anticipates great performances throughout the four days of competition.
She said: "All Jamaica should be proud that we are hosting these Games. It goes to show that the association (SOJ) has put a lot into the programme and we can show the other Caribbean countries how to organise such events."
INCREASED AWARENESS
Mrs. Bell added that as a result of the Games there will be increased awareness among Jamaicans for persons affected by mental retardation.
"If we just spend a little time with them," she pleaded, "we will see how well they can do once they are trained."
According to documentation released on Special Olympics, some of the benefits to be gained from participating in the Games are physical fitness and motor skills, improved self-confidence, image and health as well as increased family support and friendships.
With over 1,700 registered persons and 250 volunteers, SOJ seeks to increase national awareness of mentally-impaired individuals. Established in 1978, it echoes its mother organisation's ethos in emphasizing participation and competition rather than winning.
The Special Olympics athlete oath "Let me win, but if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt" reflects this noble position.
Special Olympics was founded in 1968 when Eunice Kennedy Shriver arranged the first International Special Olympic Games in Illinois, USA, when she realized that mentally challenged persons were more capable in sports than was previously believed.
