Special
Olympics comes to Long Beach
By Yoshinori Okada
Summer On-line Forty-Niner
 The
Special Olympics of Southern California,
Summer Games 2003 concluded Sunday, with
countless moments of joy and excitement
experienced at Cal State Long Beach.
CSULB
has hosted the Summer Games for five consecutive
years. CSULB is a great venue for Special
Olympics because of its fine facilities
and good community support, said Angela
Calderon, public relations manager of Special
Olympics Southern California.
The
Special Olympics is an international program
of year-round sports training and athletic
competition for people with mental retardation
and closely associated developmental disabilities.
The
Special Olympics , which serves more than
11,000 athletes, ages from eight to 80,
as one of 52 U.S. regional non-profit organizations
accredited by Special Olympics Inc. in Washington,
D.C. organized the event through private
donations.
The
opening ceremony was held at The Pyramid
Friday, June 6 at 7 p.m. Three torches,
carried by more than 3,500 law enforcement
officers from San Diego, Los Angeles and
San Luis Obispo counties, were combined
as one to light up the flame of hope in
The Pyramid signaling the start of the summer
games.
More
than 4,000 athletes, coaches and volunteers
from 11 counties in Southern California
participated in games of aquatics, athletics,
basketball, bocce ball, golf, gymnastics
and tennis. All games were held in lower
campus facilities, excluding the golf games
that were played in Little Recreation South
Golf Club in Long Beach.
Greg
Raizk, a volunteer from El Segundo, said
that he likes the Special Olympics games.
“It’s a nice thing to have these kids feel
good about having accomplished something,”
Raizk said.
Claudia
Paquette, a volunteer head coach for the
Long Beach track and field team, said, “This
is the most fantastic program I can think
of. There are not a lot of opportunities
given to mentally handicapped children and
adults. There are the ways that they feel
No. 1, they’re the top dogs actually. So,
it makes a wonderful experience for them
and makes a wonderful experience for the
parents to see that. Wow, I didn’t know
my kid could do that.”
The
closing ceremony began on Sunday at 2 p.m.
Awards for the most inspirational athletes
were given to Charlene Smith of Greater
Los Angeles, and Dustin Plunkett of Southeast
Los Angeles.
The
highlight of the event came as all participants,
from the athletes and coaches to the law
enforcement officers, joined hand in hand
to form the symbolic Circle of Friendship
and celebrated with each other while “Proud
to be an American” was played.
At
the end, Rafer Johnson, an Olympic Gold-medallist
who was instrumental in bringing Special
Olympics to Southern California, officially
announced the finale of the three-day event.
The olympic torch was re-lighted for the
Fall Games 2003 in Fountain Valley.
Besides
the sports competitions, all participants
and spectators enjoyed continuous live entertainment,
sports demos, interactive games and food
booths at the Sports Expo Park through the
weekend.
“This
Summer Games was bigger and better than
ever,” said Janet Schulman, president and
CEO of the program. “We had 1,600 athletes,
we had a wonderful Sports Expo Park and
a fabulous Olympic Village. They were beautiful
this year, beautiful.”
“We
are definitely coming back to Long Beach
State [next year]. We love it, it’s a fantastic
venue and we’re thrilled to be here,” Schulman
said.
Thirty-one
athletes and seven coaches representing
Southern California will participate in
the 2003 Special Olympics World Summer Games,
starting June 20, in Dublin, Ireland.
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