ELIOS 2010

Special Olympics European Summer Games (ELIOS) was an incredible event which fosters integration of mentally disabled people with the rest of the society. Still many people in Poland imagine mentally disabled as those who cannot communicate, not even thinking about playing basketball,

football, tennis, badminton, bowling, table tennis, running, jumping, shot putting, lifting weights or roller skating.

In fact, mental disability rarely comes with physical disability. It does not make affected people totally not communicative. Indeed, as a volunteer in the delegation services center, I had an opportunity to help competitors, too. One of the top achievements of my team was to understand a request of one of the athletes, who managed to convince us, using her native (even unidentified by us) Balkan language, that she would like to… have bussiness cards made for her! Was the mental disability a grave problem? No!

Please come to see the photos from the opening ceremony, too.

Finally, let me mention the only demonstration discipline present during the games: the Motor Activity Training Program — a sport specially for those rare, who are physically disabled as well. It’s an incredible experience to see athletes, for whom even successfully crawling for 5 meters may make so much fun.

(photo by Adam Nurkiewicz / Mediasport)

official ELIOS photo page, beginning of the MATP photo series