By Tengku Noor Shamsiah Abdullah
PETALING JAYA, June 11 – Sixteen Malaysians with intellectual disabilities and six unified partners will depart from Kuala Lumpur tomorrow to participate in the Special Olympics World Games (WG) which will take place this June 17-25 in Berlin, Germany.
Describing them as “already winners” for just taking the courage to participate in the games, Special Olympics Malaysia (SOM) President Lam Saw Yin called on them to see WG as yet another opportunity to further showcase their bravery.
She said this during a send off ceremony at Sunway University here performed by Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh for the delegates who will depart for Berlin tomorrow morning from Kuala Lumpur.
The Malaysian athletes will compete in six sporting events namely Swimming, Bocce, Badminton, Athletics, Table Tennis and Bowling.
The Malaysian team, to be led by Dr G. Sivanesan who is already in Berlin, will have 39 members including the 16 special athletes, 6 unified partners and 17 coaches and officials.
In her speech earlier, Yeoh said the ministry would relaunch the Rakan Muda programme this month as an effort to bring together all youth programmes in a coordinated manner.
The programme, first set in the 1990s, will be used as a tool to unite Malaysian youth from all walks of life, while providing support to encourage young people to participate in the programme.
Yeoh also expressed hope that Malaysia’s participation at the WG will encourage more disabled people to take up sports.
Besides providing a platform for competition among the intellectually impaired athletes, the WG also features unified sports categories where the athletes can pair up with regular athletes.
Yeoh said the National Sports Council (NSC) had allocated RM160,000 to assist the contingent, while a number of corporate sponsors were also supporting the event.
–WE