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sports
Special
Olympics come to CSULB
By Porsher Lowe
Summer On-line Forty-Niner
Children and adults
with mental and physical disabilities will be able to showcase
their athletic ability at the 2002 Southern California Special
Olympics summer games that will be held at Cal State Long
Beach this Friday through Sunday.
Over 1600 athletes are expected to compete during the three-day
event, which is being held at CSULB for the fourth consecutive
year.
Competitions will be held in seven sports that include: aquatics,
athletics (track and field), bocce, golf, gymnastics and tennis.
The golf event will be held at the Recreation golf Course
in Long Beach.
Athletes range from age eight and up-some competing well into
their 60's 70's and 80's. Participants are assigned to divisions
based on age as well as previous performance, and are matched
to those with similar abilities, said Angela Calderon, the
SOSC public relations manager.
The goals of SOSC, according to Calderon, is to provide children
with developmental disabilities a chance to work on physical
fitness as well as their athletic successes by participating
in Olympic-type sports activities.
Through events like the summer games, these athletes can showcase
and share their athletic skills and talents with other special
Olympic athletes, as well as with their families, friends
and supporters.
Debbie Rowe, assistant executive officer at SOSC, is very
excited about this year's events. " It's always great
to see the athletes participate," she said.
The opening ceremony will begin Friday at 7p.m. at the Pyramid
and will culminate with a closing ceremony Sunday at 2p.m.
at Sports Expo Park. Scheduled to host this year's opening
ceremony will be Bill McDonald from Fox Sports West.
Competitions on Saturday will begin at 8p.m. and end at 5p.m.
Sunday competitions will begin at 8a.m. and continue through
1:30p.m. Admission and parking are free.
Awards will be handed out Sunday starting at 2p.m. for those
athletes that showed outstanding performance and inspiration.
This weekend will also include games, live entertainment,
community exhibits and sports clinics that are open to the
public. These events will be held at Sports Expo Park in the
center of the campus.
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