Summer Olympic Sports

Greek economic woes won't impact Special Olympics

“As of (Thursday and Friday) there’s a new government, a shuffle, and with the help of the international community, we’ll get over it,” said Azemopoulos, at a Canadian sendoff rally where federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty boosted Special Olympics funding by $800,000 to help send the Canadian team to Athens. He was accompanied by Bal Gossal, the newly appointed Minister of State for Sport.

The Special Olympics Summer World Games take place June 25-July 4. The Games will see some 7,500 athletes with intellectual disabilities from an estimated 185 nations compete in 22 sports. The Games will use about 3,000 technical officials and 25,000 volunteers.

Canada will take part in seven sports: athletics, aquatics, bowling, powerlifting, rhythmic gymnastics, soccer and softball.

Greece’s Prime Minister George Papandreou on Friday installed a new finance minister as part of the cabinet shuffle designed to assuage widespread rioting and anger over tough new austerity measures.

Special Olympics Canada has not actually been given an official heads up that that Special Olympics will be untouched and secure amid the civic disobedience, “but if we thought there was a problem, we wouldn’t let anyone go,” said Michael Howlett, the newly elected SOC president.

“As far as we know, the Games are a go. We haven’t heard any different,” said Gossal.

“The nature of the Greek people, the nature of the Olympics -- especially these Special Olympics -- mean they’ll be embraced. The Olympics is a symbol,” Azemopoulos said.

Communications giant Telus last night donated 135 phones to allow the athletes to call friends and family at home. The company also is contributing $50 to Special Olympics Canada for every supporter who activates or renews a Telus wireless device until April 2012.

Athletes -- 85 of them first-timers at the international games -- marched up to the sendoff in downtown Toronto, wearing bright red tee-shirts bearing the new guiding philosophy of Special Olympics Canada: Dream, Commit, Achieve, Celebrate. It’s a tweak on the old social program philosophy of Brave in the Attempt.

This team Canada gathered in sport-specific camps and engaged in sessions for fitness testing, nutrition, mental training for sport, strength, conditioning and team building.

The Canadian team has “a unique blend of sport science and training regimens,” said Deborah Bright, outgoing president and CEO of Special Olympics Canada. “It’s the model for Special Olympics programs around the globe.

Summer Olympic Sports Gallery ~ Android Application v1.1 By m41m41

At the first Olympic Games, nine sports were contested. Since then, the number of sports contested at the Summer Olympic Games has gradually risen to twenty-eight on the program from 2000–2008. At the 2012 Summer Olympics, however, the number of sports will fall back to twenty-six following an IOC vote in early 2006 deciding the removal of baseball and softball from the Olympic program. These remain recognized sports nonetheless, with the possibility of a return to the Olympic program in future games.[9] At the 121st IOC Session in Copenhagen on 9 October 2009, the IOC voted to simultaneously reinstate both golf and rugby to the Olympic program, meaning that for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games, the number of official Olympic sports that will be contested will be back up to 28 again, two more than the 26 sports that constitute London's program.

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