This year South Gloucestershire Council Sports Development and Active Lifestyles Team took a group of 11 athletes to the Special Olympic GB games in Leicester, with some of the athletes also members of Bristol Rovers Ability FC.

The summer games are held every four years to provide a week of Olympic-styled sports competition for athletes with learning disabilities. We have taken a 5 a side team and 3 swimmers who have taken part in regional events over the last year to qualify for this event.

The athletes have trained over the last year to prepare for this event. The most of the preparation has come from taking part in the current South Gloucestershire LAAD Programme.
Most of our athletes have not been to such a big event or spent this length of time away from their parents/ carers, so this would be a once in a lifetime experience.

We were part of the South West team made up from 38 athletes. The South West delegation was the smallest region to take part in this years games with teams in some cases having over 250 athletes.

The team attended a opening ceremony where 22,000 friends, families and supporters watched the as all 2,400 athletes paraded through the stadium, and the lighting of the Special Olympics Flame of Hope.

From Sunday Morning the athletes were taking part in divisioning events to ensure they were in the correct division. Following the division placements the athletes started taking part in the competition proper.
On Tuesday we had our first Swimming medals of the tournament Maureen Gold, Adam Silver and Michael Bronze.

Towards the end of the week the medal tally for the swimming was 2 golds 2 silvers and a bronze.

The football tournament went down to the final day where the team finally won gold winning all but 1 of their 6 matches. The 8 players were awarded their medals and were ecstatic about their achievements.

Every one of our 11 athletes came away with a medal, 10 with gold medals which is a remarkable achievement for such a small squad.

The closing ceremony was a fantastic night with a ABBA tribute band, fireworks and the football team found the volunteers who had helped out at the football tournament and challenged them the a game of football in the park.

Without the support of the support team Jay Lee, Ian Thomas and Sophie Howes we would not have taken part in this.

Bristol Rovers FC would like to congratulate all the athletes involved on your fantastic achievement, best of luck for the future in all you look to achieve.

Future direction
• Continue to sustain and develop high quality sports opportunities.
• Link in sessions to opportunities to compete in local regional and national competitions.
• Develop support packages to build capacity within sports clubs and coaches (including mainstream) to train potential special Olympics athletes.
• By the next national Special Olympics in 2013 we will have 30+ athletes attending in over 5 different sports.