More than 1,100 athletes will participate in six different competitions at this weekend’s 41st annual Summer Games for Special Olympics at Cal State Long Beach, over the course of the two-day event starting at 10 a.m. on June 12.
The event is expected to attract more than 6,000 people, including athletes, coaches, volunteers, and spectators. Athletes will compete for gold, silver and bronze medals in aquatics, track and field, basketball, boccie, golf and gymnastics.
The games are designed to change the lives of people with disabilities and their families through sports and competition.
“[Special Olympics] offer so many things now,” said Elyse Garcia, area director for the event. “It’s primarily a sports training program and it really does change lives.”
Garcia’s mother was one of the founders. She will coordinate the basketball program this year. According to Garcia, a lot of these athletes have never seen a doctor and these events provide a ‘”healthy athlete village,” which are set up at each of the chapter games for free.
“They get those needs met and it helps them improve athletically, and then athletics build up the confidence, and so they succeed in jobs and their social lives,” Garcia said.
One of the athletes who will participate in the basketball competition this weekend is 20-year-old David Sanders.
“I like the atmosphere and the competition,” Sanders said. Sanders has been to the International Special Olympics, which occur after the Summer Games. Prior to basketball, Sanders was in aquatics, but wanted to try something different and moved to basketball. He has been an athlete since he was 13 years old and his aspirations are his parents and family.
According to a statement released by Bill Shumard, president and CEO of Special Olympics SoCal, most of the athletes participate in sports year-round through Special Olympics. The Summer Games is the largest competition and the one athletes and the public look forward to. Eight to ten weeks prior to the Summer Games, athletes compete at different levels of the six sports to see who will make it to the Summer Games.
Some of the athletes from this weekend will qualify to go to the International Special Olympics, which takes place every four years.
KTLA sports anchor Derrin Horon will kick start the games during the opening ceremony, which includes the traditional parade of athletes and the lighting of the cauldron using a torch. The competitions will run June 12-13, followed by a closing awards ceremony.
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