As the Special Olympics World Games kicked off with its opening ceremony in Berlin’s Olympic Stadium, former Dallas Mavericks’ star Dirk Nowitzki had one easy request: “Come out and support all the athletes.”

The basketball star was not alone in lending his assist to the Special Olympians as seven-time Formula 1 champion driver Lewis Hamilton despatched a message to the 7,000 Special Olympics athletes from 180 nations, particularly these athletes from Great Britain.

“It’s really amazing what you are able to do out there,” Hamilton stated in a video. “Just go out and have the best time and enjoy yourself.”  

Taking half

Indeed, as Hamilton implies, the “taking part” is as, if not extra, essential than the competitors on the Special Olympics World Games, including:  “I am massively inspired and so proud of all of you.”  

“It is not about winning or losing but about engaging in sport,” stated Dirk Nowitzki, the NBA’s Most Valuable Player in 2007, who hails from from Würzburg, Germany. “It’s about athletes coming together and having the chance to play and learn from sports, just like I did,” Nowitzki stated after an look with the German Special Olympics 3-on-3 basketball groups. “I am happy to experience this.”

Romania’s five-time Olympic gold medalist Nadia Comeneci is equally impressed, and never simply by the athletes. “Special Olympics is not just about a big event like Berlin, important though that is,” she wrote lately. “It’s also about the work done at grassroots level” by coaches, trainers and directors.

3,000 coaches have joined the athletes in Berlin. But that could be a drop within the ocean in comparison with those that work with the six million athletes with mental disabilities globally “using sport to create an inclusive world for people of all abilities,” as Comeneci, a Global Ambassador for Special Olympics, wrote in a Laureus Sport for Good column.

Challenge to German, European sports activities golf equipment

Among the star energy boosting Special Olympics in Berlin is a member of unofficial United States royalty. Timothy Shriver, the Chairman of Special Olympics, is part of the Kennedy household. His mom, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the youthful sister of President John F. Kennedy, helped begin the Special Olympics. 

He advised DW he sees the Games in Berlin particularly serving to German and European sports activities golf equipment additional open their doorways to Special Olympians. “We’re very confident that this country will embrace the idea of the Special Olympics as a challenge to be more inclusive in sports clubs and schools.”

“Less than 10% of the clubs offer sport for Special Olympics athletes. I hope that the Special Olympics World Games will create more attention.”

We hope that this message resonates all through Europe,” Shriver told DW. “People with mental disabilities have one thing distinctive to supply.”

Changing attitudes

As the Special Olympics’ inspirational athletes and message continues to resonate around the world, the hope is that events in Berling can further change the perception. “Let’s change public attitudes in direction of incapacity, Special Olympics,” Drogba, the previous Ivory Coast soccer star, has tweeted. 

He, like Nadia Comeneci, famous for her the first-ever Olympics perfect gymnasitcs score of 10 in 1976, is a Global Ambassador for Special Olympics.  As is Irish golfer Padraig Harrington, American figure skater Michelle Kwan, Chinese tennis star, Li-Na, and a host of other stars from the world of sport. 

Speaking to the athletes, Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton said in his video: “I’m massively impressed and so happy with all of you, I do not suppose anybody can perceive simply how exhausting the journey has been for all of you to have the ability to be the place you might be.”

As the World Games proceed to encourage folks throughout the globe, many, it appears, are coming nearer to that understanding.  

Edited by: James Thorogood