Special Olympics Volunteer Diary - Day 9

Off for a quick recce of the new venue. This turns out to be time well spent as getting there is a little complicated and the layout is completely different to what I'm used to. I have a free day, so it's time to look at some of the other competitions. I've heard that the Royal Dublin Society (RDS) venue is the place to be, so I head for the centre of the city. The RDS has the athlete entertainment village*, so there's plenty on offer to keep them occupied between competitions. Now I can see where the wild hair-do's and face painting creations have come from that have turned up in Loughlinstown. There is also the Healthy Athlete programme* available, which has already saved the sight of at least 2 athletes and provided an artifical leg for another. Over 2,000 athletes have taken advantage of the facilities on offer, including Zena from my Bahrain team who has had her hearing aid repaired during the competition.

There are 5 sports on offer at the RDS - Gymnastics, Table Tennis, Power Lifting, Bocce (a bit like carpet bowls) and the Motor Activity Programme. The latter is a demonstration sport at the Games and involves athletes who face major challenges. There are a number of activities for the athletes, such as bean bag lifting, kicking a ball and walking. Completion of these simple tasks are real achievements for the athletes taking part and there isn't a dry eye amongst the spectators (including mine).

* = that's why we met so many clowns and dental students on Day 2!

Click here for Day 10.