This term, Year 10 Crompton House student, Yasmin Booth, is representing Great Britain in golf at the Special Olympics. It’s a special occasion for Yasmin who has been playing from a young age.
Starting off in Stuttgart, Yasmin was greeted by the mayor. Volunteers from a global organization called Lions, also met and helped some of the athletes with luggage and finding their way around the city. A full schedule of activities also took place, including training at the FC Stuttgart Ground, team building activities and a tour of the Mercedes Benz Museum.
After an eight hour coach journey Yasmin finally arrived in Berlin from Stuttgart, where she began training at the golf course, along with visits from a WWE star, Drew McIntrye and appointments with Healthy Athletes, where a health check took place for all competitors.
At the opening ceremony, the team wore a full team kit, white polo shirts and red jackets. A large crowd welcomed the special olympics team with a gathering of 40,000 people in the Olympiastadion.
Tim Shriver (activist for disability rights, film producer) gave a speech, along with various dancers, robots, animatronics, DJs and acts. There were over 160 countries all streaming into the stadium team by team, the build up and emotion was spectacular.
The whole the team loved every minute, a truly momentous movement celebrating unified sport and pushing for more rights and less barriers for people with disabilities.
Unified sport is when mainstream and disability players play together on a team – which happens in golf, football and a few other sports but not all.
Good luck Yasmin! We wish you all of the best at the Special Olympics in Berlin!
