09 Aug 2015

The Minister of Education and Skills Development, Unity Dow has praised the Special Olympics team for winning 20 medals from the Special Olympics games in Los Angeles, United States from July 25 to August 2.

At a celebratory ceremony recently, Dow said that was testimony to a significant growth for the team considering the 14 medals they won in 2011.  The minister expressed gratitude to athletes for their performance at the games, adding that the team has proudly lifted the country’s flag high therefore making the country proud.

She added that by doing so, the team also kept up with the Vision 2016 pillar of a united and proud nation. Dow further encouraged athletes who did not win medals not to despair, but to remember that was the beginning of their long sporting career.

Botswana had sent 40 athletes to Los Angeles to compete in four sporting codes which included athletics, swimming, football and volleyball. 

Swimming, athletics and volleyball managed to put sterling performances to win silver medals while football did not manage silverware after the team was knocked out in the quarter-finals, losing 5-0 to Egypt.

From the 20 medals, swimming and athletics brought four gold medals. 

Out of the 10 silver medals, swimming won three, athletics five and both male and female volleyball teams won silver medals each.

The head of delegation, Ross Tebele said their journey to Los Angeles was good. 

Tebele said they had time to familiarise athletes with climate and environmental change to afford them to settle down.

He said the only challenge they faced was with the women volleyball team which had not taken the kit for able bodied players.

“We had to rely on players living with disabilities for all the matches, the order is that we are allowed to partner them with able bodied players. But without the kit we had to keep our fingers crossed for them to carry through without getting injuries,” he said.

However, he said the ladies put up a sterling performance which earned them silver medals. Ends