Oyinkansola Joseph has loving parents who wanted her to achieve all that she could but there was one great barrier - she is autistic. The parents have gone far and near for a solution and have spent a lot of money just to get her educated and then the father had a bright idea - why not let his daughter participate in sports.
“I told her that today we will be going to the stadium and will participate in any of the sports. When we got to the stadium, it was only the badminton court that was available and I said we will start with that and that is how my daughter began her sports career.
“Now she is into table-tennis and athletics but Special Olympics Nigeria (SON) came into the picture and they changed my life and my daughter’s.”
The father, Segun, said all these at a media parley that SON instituted at the camp site of the 43 athletes that will represent Nigeria at the Special Olympics tournament slated for Athens Greece, from June 25 to July 25, 2011.
Oyinkansola is one of many who are intellectually challenged but have been given an avenue to shine by the creation of the Special Olympics tournament. Nigeria will be attending for the third time in Greece and the performances of our representatives have continued to improve from 2003 to 2009 and now expectations are high that these present squad - Team Nigeria, will break all records in bringing a haul of medals to the country.
The Special Olympics goal “is to ensure that all persons with intellectual challenges have the chance to become useful and productive citizens who are accepted and respected in their communities.”
The Games is the brainchild of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who started a backyard summer camp for people with intellectual disabilities but that small beginning has turned into a global movement, where over 7000 athletes will be attending the 2011 tournament.
Shriver guided children with intellectual disabilities into sports at her Camp Shriver events, and the Chicago Mayor in 1968, Richard Daley, said “You know, Eunice,the world will never be the same after this.”
That world has really changed and for the better and for children and people like Oyinkansola, now have something to aim at and be enthusiastic about. The competition will be in 22 Olympic-type sports with the Nigerian contingent competing in Aquatics, Athletics, Badminton, Basketball, Table Tennis and football.
A private initiative
SON came into being in 2001; this is the 10th anniversary and that will be marked with a higher number of participants and like the leader of the delegation promised the gathering, the team will not win less than 43 medals at the games.
SON is privately run with a board of trustees and a sponsorship committee headed by Foluso Philips. The chairman of the board is Victor Osibodu, and he emphasised the need for more corporate presence in the team as all the funds for the 43 athletes,
16 coaches/caregivers and two leaders of delegation are being sponsored by funds gathered from about eight Nigerian companies and well meaning Nigerians that have also made their contributions.
Osibodu said, “I will also like to thank the families who have made donations towards the actualisation of this life changing event.”
Though there is still a short fall of N7 million needed for the contingent, Philips said they were enthusiastic of making up the shortfall so that none of the athletes or coaches will be left behind. It was also revealed that the caregivers are volunteers, who are not been paid for services rendered.
The aim of the parley, as expressed by Osibodu, “was to express unreserved appreciation to the sponsors, coaches and caregivers and the parents, who have trusted us with their wards.” The media was also acknowledged in their effort at creating adequate public awareness and also of effectively publicising “The Road to Athens 2011”.
Assistant football coach, Sunday Ademulehin, said he believes that the football team will most certainly win gold after the China squad won silver. “We have three superb players in the team now who boast excellent technique and we hope they will play to their strengths.”
Nigeria’s participation
SON has participated in two World Summer Games; her first being in 2003 World Summer Games held in Dublin, Ireland with four athletes representing the country and they came home with gold, silver and bronze. Her second was the 2007 World Summer Games held in Shangai, China with a total of 34 delegates; 24 athletes, seven coaches, one head of delegation, and one assistant head of delegation.
The captain of Team Nigeria, Whitney Musa, also spoke words that lifted the hearts of those present for the parley:
“The gold medal is already waiting for us, it is only left for us to go and collect them”, and immediately after that statement charged her team members into a Team Nigeria chant.
The camping exercise, which started last week is in two phases. The first phase is the bonding process between the athletes and their coaches/care givers, while the second phase will be the real preparation where the athletes will be stretched to their extreme abilities.
The leader of the delegation, Charles Akindayomi, reassured the parents that were present that, “the children will have a wonderful experience where they can shout, dance, do anything to their heart’s delight. It will be the most exhilarating even for us as leaders of the contingent.”
The athletes were chosen randomly at the 2010 Special Olympics Nigeria National Games held at the University of Lagos Sports Complex in September, 2010.
Akindayomi said, “The athletes were selected by balloting so the selected ones are actually lucky to be part of the team and we are confident that they will do the nation proud.
The parley was concluded when some of the athletes paraded in a mock fashion show and the basketball team did choreographed dance routine and it was disclosed that the four boys that did the routine are speech impaired - they were dancing to beats and not the music.
What freedom and what inspiration for those that have all faculties in place and are still despondent. These ones are intellectually impaired but are happy because they have been given a chance to excel in sports by Special Olympics Nigeria.
And as John Dow, managing director of Special Olympics Africa said, “Every day, on dusty fields and grassy tracks across the region our athletes strive, overcoming obstacles, trying, succeeding, and exceeding our expectations. They remind us of the can in every can’t, the ability in every disability.”
Profile of the convener of the Special Olympics
Eunice Kennedy Shriver, founder of Special Olympics, was a tireless advocate for people with intellectual disabilities.
One woman’s vision
After visiting institutions for people with intellectual disabilities across United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s, she was appalled by their treatment.
She believed that, given the same opportunities and experiences as others, they were far more capable than commonly believed.
Shriver put that vision into action in 1962 by inviting children with intellectual disabilities to Camp Shriver, a summer day camp in her backyard, to explore their capabilities in a variety of sports and physical activities. The Camp Shriver concept - that through sports people with intellectual disabilities can realize their potential for growth - began to spread, and in July 1968, the first International Special Olympics Games were held in Chicago, Illinois, USA.
“The Chicago Special Olympics prove a very fundamental fact,” Shriver said in her Opening Ceremony address at those Games, “the fact that exceptional children - children with mental retardation - can be exceptional athletes, the fact that through sports they can realize their potential for growth.”
Shriver also announced a new national program - Special Olympics - to offer people with intellectual disabilities everywhere “the chance to play, the chance to compete and the chance to grow.”
What began as one woman’s vision evolved into Special Olympics - a global movement that today serves 3 million people with intellectual disabilities in nearly 200 nations around the world.
She was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, on July 10, 1921, the fifth of nine children of Joseph and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy; Eunice Mary Kennedy received a Bachelor of Science degree in sociology from Stanford University in Palo Alto, California.
She married Robert Sargent Shriver, and in 1957, took over the direction of the Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation. The foundation, established in 1946 as a memorial to Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. - the family’s eldest son, who was killed in World War II - has two major objectives: to seek the prevention of intellectual disabilities by identifying its causes, and to improve the means by which society deals with citizens who have intellectual disabilities.
Recognized throughout the world for her efforts on behalf of persons with intellectual disabilities, Shriver received many honours and awards, including the US Presidential Medal of Freedom, and received honorary degrees from, among others, Yale University and Princeton University.
She died August 11, 2009. She was survived by her husband, Sargent Shriver, and their five children: Robert Sargent Shriver III, Maria Owings Shriver Schwarzenegger, Timothy Perry Shriver, Mark Kennedy Shriver and Anthony Paul Kennedy Shriver.
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