Special Olympians brace for time of their life

PANAJI: Rarely do you find politicians sympathetic to the cause of Special Olympians but Francis D’Souza, Goa’s deputy chief minister, seems to be cut from a different cloth.
Back in 2003, as Victor Vaz, National sports director of Special Olympics Bharat, testified, the deputy chief minister “saved our face” by showing up for an important function at just an hour’s notice.Since then, Francis and his wife, Natty, have paid more than just lip-service to the Special Olympics movement.
“There was a special child from our home who went to the Olympics in Ireland and won gold. As a minister, I try to do what I can but I feel a lot more still needs to be done. These special children need plenty of support not just from the government but everyone else,” said Francis.
The deputy chief minister was addressing the 18 Goan athletes and five coaches who will be part of the Indian contingent of 330 for the 2015 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Los Angeles, starting July 25, and as the athletes basked in the attention, nobody was left in any doubt that they would be transformed on their return.
“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for these children. No amount of money can give you this kind of experience. Their lives change,” said Victor.
Victor knows what he is speaking. After all, he has been the driving force behind the Special Olympics sports movement in Goa for 29 years and is now the head of India’s delegation to the United States.
The athletes who are now preparing to board their flight to the United States will not get another chance to witness a spectacle of such a magnitude. With 7,000 athletes and 3,000 coaches representing 177 countries, along with 30,000 volunteers, the 2015 Special Olympics World Games is the largest sports and humanitarian event anywhere in the world in 2015, and the single biggest event in Los Angeles since the 1984 Olympic Games.
“As a rule, we do not send the same child again the second time. We intend to give everyone a chance to experience this phenomenon,” explained Vaz.
47 Goan athletes have been part of the Special Olympics since Anthony Colaco became the first Goan to participate and win a gold medal in Minnesota (United States). That was in 1991 and since then Goa has won 21 gold medals, including seven at the last Games in Athens.
Goan athletes will largely represent popular games like volleyball, football, basketball and roller skating. They have undergone intensive training for several months now and, as the deputy chief minister himself put on record, “they are all ready to take on the world.”
Goan athletes in Indian team: Soniya Patil, Riya Gawde, Urmila Parab, Avila Kane, Fatima Rodrigues, Alcia Antao, Tanawi Rane, Rachel Fernandes, Shubham Salgaonkar, Vishram Shivaji, Sachin Suvarna, Daniel De Souza, Samir Das, Kushal Resham, Tukaram Sangaonkar, Vinay Ghadge, Jonathan Rodrigues, Supresh Gaonkar; Samantha D’Costa, Amit Fernandes, Gareth Vaz, Vishant Priolkar, Saish Naik (all coaches), Antonio Froyes (badminton) and Victor Vaz (head of delegation).