Special Olympics Ireland Receives Helping Hand From UL

Sports - Other Sports

Thursday, 27 May 2010 11:17

Written by Stephen Davis

Over 300 members of the University of Limerick Campus Community including, students, staff and faculty are actively involved in the staging of the 2010 Special Olympics Ireland Games set to take place primarily on the UL campus from Thursday 9th - Sunday 13th June. 

As well as being the main residential centre, housing 2100 athletes and coaches, the University of Limerick will host the athletics, aquatics, basketball, football, bocce, gymnastics and kayaking competitions.

"The number of Special Olympics volunteers registered from UL represents one of the biggest groups of volunteers and is a testament to the energetic buzz that the upcoming Games are generating on campus.  Our campus community is determined to make this national games one of the best yet for the athletes, their coaches and their families.  We hope that many members of the public we come to our campus during the Special Olympics to witness what will be an inspiring event," said Professor Don Barry, President, University of Limerick.

It is expected that athletes, their coaches and families as well as Special Olympics Volunteers will number approximately 5000 on campus every day of competition with many more hundreds of spectators from the general public expected to pass through the UL campus during the four days of the event.

"The University of Limerick truly is Ireland's sporting campus and is an ideal location to host a sports competition on this scale. Although the preparation on campus has been huge job, absolutely everyone in our community has risen to the challenge.  Our on-campus accommodation and restaurant facilities as well as state-of-the-art sports facilities have allowed us to turn our campus into an Olympic Village for the athletes and their coaches and give them the opportunity to really focus on their sport, said Linda Stevens, Director of Plassey Life Services at UL.