Healthy Athletes & World Games: the Narrative has just Begun

As I walked through the Healthy Athletes venue at the 2011 World Summer Games in Athens Greece on June 24th I saw a huge open space, colorful carpets and walls, and a lot of boxes, as yet unpacked. Even after two years of focused effort and planning by the Games Organizing Committee in Greece, our Headquarters office, and our Europe-Eurasia Regional team, the real story of Healthy Athletes at these Games was just beginning to unfold.

As the story began, we knew that we had 36 Clinical Director trainees from 23 countries, poised to gain knowledge and experience to allow them to return home and run screening events in their own countries. We also had 42 seasoned Clinical Directors willing to pay their own way to Athens to create a linguistically diverse team of volunteers to screen athletes from nearly 170 countries. We had a strong team of US and Greek staff, consultants, and partners – partners who not only gave cash and in-kind support, but who were poised to roll-up their sleeves and volunteer for the duration of the games – grinding lenses, registering athletes, fitting hearing aids, screening athletes, and ensuring a strong health IT infrastructure for the Games. The team was in place, the equipment and supplies had arrived, and the venue was ready. 
  

Read Darcie's complete column... 

Relive the Special Olympics World Summer Games Athen 2011 online by visiting the Healthy Athletes flickr page and the Healthy Athletes home on Facebook:  www.facebook.com/special.olympics.healthy.athletes. As always, you can post your photos, stories, videos, and other Healthy Athletes material, or send your stories to khejlik@specialolympics.org so we can share them. 

Special Olympics featured Healthy Athletes in one of its videos produced during the World Summer Games Athens 2011, capturing the energy and fun of the venue but also the urgent health needs of people with intellectual disabilities. "We've had athletes who just accepted that life is blurry. All of a sudden, they come here and they can see clearly," says Global Medical Advisor Dr. Matthew Holder.

See the video...

Free Hearing Aids Give the Gift of Sound to Athletes

Eirini Athanasaki’s last hearing aid stopped working years ago, so she could barely remember what it was like to hear clearly. But at World Summer Game volunteer doctors at Healthy Athletes reminded her, providing a brand new device and returning her hearing to normal.

“We were very anxious to come here and see if anyone could help,” said Fotios Drougkis, Eirini’s football/soccer coach. “We found a great team here and they gave us a wonderful present.”

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Foot Defect Doesn't Stop Athlete from Running, Winning

In all their years of practice, neither Carine Haemels nor David Jenkins, podiatrists from Belgium and Arizona, had seen a case quite like that of Chanveha Sun, a 14-year old from Cambodia. Known clinically as a “subluxed and reversed hallux,” Chanveha’s big toe has been bent backwards on his foot since he was born.

But the congenital defect has not stopped him from walking or running. In fact, Chanveha competed in the 50-metre sprint at World Summer Games in Athens.

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Hicham Novara, a swimmer from Morocco competing at World Games, came to Healthy Athletes with extremely bad vision (-22 in one eye and -13 in the other) but wearing no glasses. When he looked at his cell phone, he held it up less than two inches from his eye so he could see, and before the exam, he sat alone and only spoke with asked a question. But by the time he finished his eye exam and was wearing corrective lenses, he was smiling, talking to his coach, and proudly showing the volunteers pictures of his friends on his phone – and holding it at arm’s length.

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Fun but also Therapeutic

Hanna Lagerqvist from Sweden spends most of her time in a wheelchair due to cerebral palsy, but her Special Olympics sport – equestrian – is acting as a physical therapy tool for her, according to Patricia Meegan, a volunteer physical therapist and athletic trainer helping at Healthy Athletes during the World Summer Games.

Because the horse’s body is both wide and warm, it is helping to loosen the muscles in her lower body and holding on to the horse is helping her develop upper body strength and conditioning.

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Dentist Gives Athlete a New Smile—Mission Accomplished

Thirty-five year old, Roy Lehmann knew he had a serious dental problem. His gums were sore, but he couldn’t afford treatment so he pushed his pain aside. All that changed last month when one organization with a mission changed his smile forever.
 
Hundreds of dentists, hygienists, and medical professionals travelled across the state to help thousands of individuals like Roy at the Wisconsin Dental Association Foundation and WDA Mission of Mercy event on Friday, June 24th and Saturday, June 25th in Weston near Wausau. Children and adults waited in line and logged more than 2,000 patient visits for free cleanings, fillings, extractions, partial dentures and even root canals.

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“Today is a day in which we can celebrate a new Special Olympics season.  A day we can be inspired by not only our experiences, but also by the friendships we make.  It is a great feeling to accomplish something that is hard to do, but when you gain the confidence, it seems no goal is unreachable.” 

With these inspiring words of Special Olympics Washington Goodwill Ambassador and Athlete Kathy Polakoski, the 6th annual Special Olympics Lions Clubs International Opening Eyes program was officially opened at the 2011 Lions Clubs International Convention in Seattle, Washington, USA.

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Against the backdrop of Special Olympics World Summer Games, Special Olympics and UNICEF signed a Memorandum of Understanding to strengthen their joint commitment to uphold the rights, dignity and inclusion of children with disabilities. At a special ceremony, Dr. Timothy P. Shriver, Chairman and CEO of Special Olympics, and UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake pledged to deepen their partnership, working more closely together to combat the legal, social and physical barriers that exclude children with disabilities from full participation.

“Children with disabilities have the same hopes and dreams as all children, and the same right to make the most of their potential,” Anthony Lake said. "The denial of that right is a loss, not only for those children, but for our societies.  And it is unconscionable.”

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As previously announced in January, thanks to a donation from the Golisano Foundation, Healthy Athletes is able to hold three regional U.S. training events in 2011.  In order to ensure all U.S. Programs are able to take advantage of the remaining training opportunity, SOI will continue recruiting.  If you know of someone that would like to become a clinical director, please send the CV for these individuals to Drew Choules (dchoules@specialolympics.org). Potential clinical directors will need to be approved by the discipline managers before they can be trained.

Upcoming training events:

• Marlborough, Mass.; September 16-17, 2011 (Medfest, Health Promotion, Fit Feet, Healthy Hearing, Special Smiles, FUNfitness)

Contact Drew Choules for more information, including clinical director position descriptions.

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To submit a story idea or your own article, contact the editor, khejlik@specialolympics.org

Quick Fact:
3,751 athletes received 13,858 screenings during Healthy Athletes at the World Summer Games Athens 2011.

Kudos!!
To Dr. Pat Nunan for receiving (for the 3rd time!) the Outstanding Clinical Faculty award given by the graduating residents at the Jewish Hospital of Cincinnati, podiatric surgical residency.  Since Pat was working at the 2011 World Summer Games of Special Olympics at the time of the awards ceremony, he  accepted the award from Athens via Skype.

Have some news that you want to share with your Healthy Athletes colleagues? Contact us and let us know!