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March 2017

Greetings from Special Olympics Bharat

Best of luck to Team SO Bharat- Hon’ble Minister for Youth Affairs & Sports Minister ,Shri Vijay

Goel

Geared Up- Special Olympics World Winter Games 2017 Austria

Having participated in 6 Camps for Winter sports held

across different locations in India since December 2015,

89 Athletes, 23 Coaches along with the youth leaders,

officials, staff and family members have reached Austria

for the Mega event- The Special Olympics World Winter

Games 2017 Austria.

On 2 March the Flame of Hope for the World Games was

lit during a formal torch lighting ceremony in Athens. In

keeping with tradition, this ceremony took place at the

Zappeion Palace in Athens, Greece where the flame was

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lit by the sun’s rays and carried out by the High Priestess and the Priestesses. The Flame of Hope was

then transferred to Austria where the Law Enforcement Torch Run® (LETR) Final Leg was formally

launched on 9 March, beginning its journey across towns and cities throughout Austria concluding with

the Flame of Hope being delivered to the Opening Ceremony of the Special Olympics World Winter

Games in Austria on 18 March

An estimated 2,700 Special Olympics Athletes from 107 nations are expected to gather in Austria for the

World Winter Games. The Games will feature nine different winter sports in venues located in the cities of

Graz, Schladming and Ramsau. A spectacular Opening Ceremony at the Stadium Planai in Schladming

on March 18th will signal the beginning of eight days of sporting competition. It is expected that 1000

media professionals from around the world will attend and cover the biggest sporting and humanitarian

event in 2017 – the Special Olympics World Winter Games in Austria. More

Aiming to win with Flying Colours

The Athletes coloured the sky with holi ecstasy.

The sound of joy and hope reached a crescendo as

they threw dry colour also bringing in the ESPN

team who had arrived from the United States of

America to film Shikha Rani Figure Skater from

Una, Himachal Pradesh, India. Adding an unusual

dimension to the final leg of preparations for the

World Games , the festival of holi marked an

auspicious see off for Team SO Bharat. The Jai

Ram Ashram, where the Athletes and Coaches

were putting up came alive with pride and

excitement. View

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The final Preparatory Camp was held in the Delhi NCR region featuring Figure and Speed skating

conducted at iskate, Ambience Mall, Gurgaon and Floor ball and Floor Hockey at the Thyagraj Stadium in

the week preceding departure of the Indian contingent on 13 March 2017 from New Delhi More pics

Send Off Ceremonies

The Athletes and Coaches from 18 states of India received a Send

Off in their respective States, following which a National Send Off

was organized at the Major DhyanChand National Stadium , New

Delhi on 10 March 2017in the gracious presence of the Hon’ble

Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports, Shri Vijay Goelji along with

more esteemed guests from the political circles. The event

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witnessed an enthusiastic response and presence from the representatives of Herbalife Nutrition, PHD

Chamber, WWE, iskate and more to cheer for and wish luck to the Athletes and Coaches View

The States of Haryana, Goa, Assam, Andhra Pradesh,

Gujarat, Odisha and more organized State Send offs

inviting Government representatives and dignitaries

from diverse fields to recognize mettle of persons with

Intellectual disabilities and the platform that Special

Olympics provides to make them look like Athletes and

feel like Athletes, preparing them to compete fiercely

on the world stage- transforming lives through sports.

It may be note worthy, since 1993, India has been

sending contingents to the Special Olympics World

Winter Games to various global locations, adding 94

medals to the nation’s glory. Read More View

GenUin: Social Impact Summit @ the 2017 Austria Games

From 16 to 22 March, 2017, Special Olympics will host the GenUin: Social Impact Summit as part of the

Special Olympics World Games 2017 in Graz, Austria. Youth leaders from all around the world will

convene for training and mentorship on how to make their communities more inclusive of people with

Intellectual Disabilities.

3 Youth leaders and one Mentor will represent

India at the Summit. Parth Agrawal, Neeraj Goyal

from Delhi and Hridey Sahgal from Bangalore are

the youth leaders participating under mentorship of

Ms Renu Nagpal from Apeejay School Pitampura

Delhi.

In January 2017 before leaving for Austria for the

Summit, Hriday Sahgal and his team conducted the

Swimathon- triathlon 2017 at TISB(The

International School Bangalore) The event was a

second edition of the one initiated last year ,with

the Athletes swimming the inaugural laps. This

year the event got bigger featuring running and cycling along with Swimming thereby increasing the

number of participants from 50 (last year) to 120. Hridey moved on from inviting Athletes for inaugural

laps in Swimathon 2016 to their participation across all three sports this year. View Read More

Hansraj College, Delhi University ,Divya Jyoti College of Dental Sciences & Research and the ESPN

team signed their best wishes to the participating SO Bharat contingent

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Winning over the Odds- Sarita Routray

At the fifth edition of Aarya awards, organized by Parichay foundation, Sarita Routray Athlete- SO Bharat Odisha was felicitated (sports Category) by Nobel Laureate Mr. Kailash Satyarthi. Aarya Awards were presented to 12 Women of Substance for their outstanding contribution to the society at the Hotel Crown, Bhubaneswar, on 5th March 2017. Sarita, youngest of all the recipients, bagged the award for excellence in sports. She left for the 2017 Austria games with the rest of the contingent.

She has been the torch-bearer for SOB, OLS, the State of Odisha, India and her family for the last 5 years or so. However, the climb so far has not been free of hardships for her. Her father is a person with hearing impairment and earns a paltry sum as a house painting worker.

Read More

Shikha & Microsoft : Mission 3000

Highlighting Shikha Rani , figure skater, referring to her as an ‘Epitome of Resolve’ is how Microsoft demonstrated its support to the International Women’s Day , at their plush office in Gurgaon on 8 March 2017.Shikha , her sister Nitu along with Virender Kumar and Raman Rekhi from SO Bharat were invited at the program also attended by 35-40 Microsoft Senior officials at the office and 50 more from their offices across Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Gurgaon, connecting live through skype.

Mr Balendu Sharma Dadhich, Sr. Product Marketing Manager, opened the program introducing Shikha and

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speaking about his visit to Una in January 2017, also encapsulated in a blog written by him Blog

“I came back yesterday after meeting Shikha at her village Deoli. It was a memorable experience. Shikha highly impressed me with her talent, determination, innocence and friendly nature. Not only she is a sporting talent, she also likes to dance, cook and knit. Even though she doesn’t have fingers, she can write in a very good handwriting and can also type”- Balendu (20 January 2017) Read More

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