Special Olympics Team On Hunt For Medal
Calistus Kolantsho | Monday March 11, 2019 11:41
The team jetted out of the country on Thursday and the games start on March 14, 2019. The championship has attracted 7,500 athletes from around 190 countries who will participate in 24 Olympic sports. Botswana has sent a team of 43 athletes and they would compete in athletics, volleyball and swimming.
Botswana has been participating at the World Games since 1991, where they made a maiden appearance with nine athletes. Speaking during the send off ceremony, assistant minister of Youth
Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development, Dikgang Phillip Makgalemele said at the 2015 edition that was held in Los Angeles, the team brought home 20 medals. “I have the confidence that the team going to Abu Dhabi has been training to the best of their ability to outperform their competitors and bring more medals (back),” he said.
Makgalemele said the games demonstrate the important role that the government puts on the welfare of all its citizens by providing equal opportunities to everyone to excel and to make a contribution to the country. “Participating in events like this builds a lot of confidence in our children and it is indeed the road to building a national achievers based on their talent,” he said.
There would be a wide range of traditional sports, along with unified sports, which bring people with and without intellectual disabilities together on the same teams.
There would also be a full programme of non-sports events, including the host town programme and the law enforcement torch run.
Meanwhile, Special Olympics Botswana chairperson, Ross Tebele told Sport Monitor that the team arrived safely on Friday. “We are staying in the host town of Sharjah to acclimatise and for training. Volleyball would move to Abu Dhabi while athletics and swimming moves to Dubai on Monday,” Tebele said.
He had mentioned that the budget to compete at the world championship stood at P900,000 and that of the Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC) was P500,000. “We have been doing our own fund raising because we had enough time for that. These games happen every four years,” he said. Debswana Mining Company, BIHL Trust, Timba Trading and LTS Investments sponsor the team.