Special Olympics 2011

The 2011 Special Olympics World Summer Games take place in Athens from 25 June to 4 July, 2011.

Ireland is sending a team of 126 athletes and will participate in aquatics, athletics, badminton, bocce, bowling, equestrian, football, golf, artistic and rhythmic gymnastics, kayaking, basketball and tabletennis.

Three Irish teams will compete in the football competitions - 11-a-side male, 5-a-side female and 5-a-side male - and basketball will be represented by one male and one female team.

There will be a total of 49 coaches and official delegates accompanying the athletes bringing the total delegation size to 175.

Hosted successfully by Ireland in 2003, it is the major event in the Special Olympics calendar.

The competition is run on a four-year cycle with athletes progressing from Area to Regional to Special Olympics Ireland Games and finally to World Games, whereupon the cycle commences again.

Special Olympics Ireland has 10,690 people with an intellectual disability registered as participants in their programmes.

You can follow the progress of the Irish athletes in Athens throughout the event here on the RTÉ Sport website, with daily round-ups and on-demand video and audio clips.

Athlete information courtesy of Special Olympics Ireland. Visit the Special Olympics Ireland website to find out more about the Irish team, the Games, how to get involved, and much more.

On Facebook: www.facebook.com/SpecialOlympicsIreland/

On Twitter: twitter.com/soireland/

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Ireland team for the 2011 Special Olympics