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(From left) Special Olympics Bulgaria athlete Petia Netrova,coach Boyama Tanova, partner Jana Ivanova Nicolova (Photo by Sabine Brecklinghaus, Special Olympics Europe/Eurasia) |
The 2008 Special Olympics Bulgaria National Summer Games were held on the campus of the National Sports Academy in Sofia from 1-3 October 2008. Three hundred Special Olympics athletes and Unified Sports® partners participated. Nine sports were offered, including Unified Sports basketball, bocce, dodge ball (a popular national sport in Bulgaria), football (soccer) and team athletics (points gathered from athletes and partners during competition count toward a team score). Guest delegations from Austria, Romania and Serbia participated in the team athletics competition. The four non-Unified sports offered were table tennis, equestrian, badminton and aquatics.
Jana Ivanova Nicolova, 18, a Unified basketball partner from the Public Financial and Banking High School in Pleven, shared her Unified Sports experience. “We have a lot of fun together with the athletes on this basketball team. There is no difference between the players. We share the same interests as all teenagers do and we do sports together. I like being on this team very much.”
Her coach, Boyama Tanova, 50, is a psychologist working in several schools in Pleven. She added, “I used to work with professional, high-level sportsmen. To coach this Unified basketball team is so much more rewarding than working with high-level athletes. I am impressed by the young women on this team. The partners support the athletes and have become friends even more than mentors. Some of the athletes had huge challenges with a lack of self-confidence. They thought they could not play with girls without a disability. They overcame their fears and learned that they are valuable team members who can do.”
Nicolova's teammate Petia Netrova, 14, an athlete from Special School PR Slaveykov Pleven, joined in, ” I love to play basketball. That's why I joined this team.”
Team Mattel Pitches in as Volunteers
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Roy Campbell, center, with Special Olympics Bulgaria athletes and Special Olympics Europe/Eurasia staff member Sabine Brecklinghaus (second from left). Photo courtesy of Special Olympics Bulgaria. |
Approximately 90 volunteers supported the Special Olympics Bulgaria National Games. Among them were 15 employees from National Distributors for Mattel in Bulgaria. National Distributors CEO Roy Campbell said, “When we were approached to get involved, we didn't ever consider not getting involved. Mattel strongly supports community involvement of employees and our participation is a natural extension of that. Special Olympics makes people with intellectual disability visible in society and that is very important. First they become visible and then their acceptance in society can be improved.”
Volunteer Victoria Uzunova, a National Distributors Logistics Expert, confirmed, “I am happy to be involved and looking forwarding to being involved in future events. I also hope more people in Bulgaria and elsewhere will join Special Olympics. It's important in the first place for people with intellectual disability. Special Olympics gives them an opportunity for integration into society. But Special Olympics is also important for everybody without intellectual disability. It gives me the chance to see the world from a different perspective; it's so rewarding to work with the Special Olympics athletes!”
A major component of Special Olympics' three-year partnership with Mattel Inc. & Mattel Children's Foundation, Team Mattel was created in 2005 to engage employees in the Special Olympics movement around the world.
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Victoria Uzunova (second row, second from left) with Special Olympics Bulgaria athletes and volunteers. Photo courtesy of Special Olympics Bulgaria |
UNICEF Shows Support for Special Olympics
Octavian Bivol, the UNICEF representative in Bulgaria, attended the competitions in Sofia and strongly supports Special Olympics Bulgaria's focus on Unified Sports. “Let people with and without intellectual disability play together on the sports field and they will build a more inclusive society,” he said. Special Olympics Bulgaria and UNICEF Bulgaria, which have worked together for three years, became part of the Special Olympics-UNICEF partnership that was announced in 2007.
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Octavian Bivol, UNICEF Representative in Bulgaria, awards a medal to a Special Olympics Bulgaria bocce competitor. Photo by Sabine Brecklinghaus, Special Olympics Europe/Eurasia. |
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