Special Olympics

Kiama Downs local, Kellie Hanson, has just returned from the Special Olympics World Games in Berlin where 7,000 athletes with an intellectual disability from 190 countries gather together to compete in 26 sports.

It is the largest humanitarian event to take place in the world.

Kellie was selected as an Assistant to the Australian Women’s Basketball Team which won the Bronze Medal.

she says indoor rowing keeps her head clear and the feeling that she has achieved something keeps her going.

“It’s a workout that you decide how hard you want to push and you decide on how fast you want to row.”

After the October event, Nardia plans to take on the World stage again next year.

As the Chairperson for Special Olympics in the Illawarra, she said “I am absolutely passionate about Special Olympics and the sporting opportunities it provides for athletes with an intellectual disability.

“The World Games is the pinnacle for these athletes.”

Kellie has spent the last six months preparing the athletes for the challenge of travelling to Berlin, with some athletes never having travelled overseas before, and some who have never been separated from their family, although Kellie says the preparation quickly faded at Brisbane Airport and were replaced by excitement and anticipation that was palpable.

Preliminary games saw the Women’s Basketball team win three of five games. In their third-round game against Azerbaijan, they needed to win by five points to take them to the gold medal match, but in one of the roughest games that Kellie has ever witnessed in 45 years of basketball, our women were battered and bruised with the Azerbaijan team recording 27 fouls, five technical fouls and having two of their players ejected from the game.

The Australian Team won by 4 and were relegated to the bronze medal match. They got away to a great start, but Kazakhstan came back resulting in a draw at full time. They were neck and neck in extra time, until, with nine seconds on the clock, one of our girls was fouled, resulting in two free throws, both of which she sank, to steal the win!

“I can’t really put into words what the whole experience was like. Travelling with any team is a challenge, but when all the athletes have an intellectual disability, the challenges are absolutely increased. But the joy and excitement totally outweigh any obstacles we faced.”