Pistoia has entered the heart of the Special Olympics Italy hosting a stage of the Play the games, an interregional event, with the golf discipline at a national level, which this year takes place until May 26th in Pistoia and Valdinievole with three sports disciplines: athletics at the school field in via della Stadio, golf at the Montecatini Golf Club and volleyball unified at the Ponte Buggianese sports hall. A great event with inclusive sport involving a total of around 300 athletes from Abruzzo, Emilia Romagna, Lazio, Lombardy, Piedmont, Umbria, Valle D’Aosta, Veneto and from all over Tuscany, 65 technicians, 80 companions, 160 family members and more one hundred volunteers. An important opportunity to make Pistoia and its territory known, with their history, their museums, their beauties thanks to the link between sport, culture and tourism.
The sporting event, organized by the regional management of the Tuscan team of Special Olympics Italy, involves athletes with intellectual disabilities who come from all over the peninsula for the discipline of golf and from the regions of central Italy for the disciplines of athletics and volleyball. The competitions are preceded by preliminary competitions, which were held this morning, Friday 24 May, to determine the skill categories. All athletes are thus given the opportunity to compete according to their own strength, just as the Special Olympics Athlete’s oath states: “May I win, but if I don’t succeed, may I try with all my might”.
The opening ceremony is also scheduled for this evening in Pescia at 8.30pm; The councilor for sports promotion of the Municipality of Pistoia will take part. The athletes, volunteers and technicians, in the presence of the local authorities, will parade to reach Piazza Mazzini where the arrival of the torch is expected, the Torch Run (which took a route crossing Monsummano, Montecatini and Ponte Buggianese), and the lighting of the tripod.
Meanwhile, yesterday morning at the Palavinci in Montecatini Terme, in collaboration with the Provincial School Office, the IC Cino da Pistoia, the Savoia Sports High School, events dedicated to the school world were held through the YAP programs (Young Athletes Program, physical activities for children aged 2 to 7 years with intellectual disabilities) and MATP (Motor Activities Training Program, a training program designed for children and adults with serious and very serious intellectual disabilities and physical and sensory disabilities with associated intellectual disability).
The closing party is scheduled for tomorrow, Saturday 25 May, at 9pm in the pine forest of Montecatini Terme, while the awards ceremonies are scheduled between Saturday and Sunday at the end of the races, in the sports facilities that hosted them, including the school field in Pistoia for athletics.
Source: Municipality of Pistoia – Press Office
