open water swimming - special olympics...es, volunteers and the public at the beach. our awards were...
TRANSCRIPT
OPEN WATER SWIMMING
In this newsletter
Israël
Ireland
Netherlands
Israël
Every 4 years Israel hosts the Maccabia Games which are the “Jewish Olympics”.
Jews from about 70 countries come to Israel to compete in different kinds of
sports . The opening ceremony took place in Jerusalem, and the competitions take
place all around the country lasting nearly 2 weeks. This year the Maccabia Games
celebrate their 20th anniversary.
On Sunday the 16th of July , 7 Open Water Swimmers from Special Olympics Israel
were invited to join the Open Water swim event of the Maccabia. The event took
place in the Galilee Sea near Tiberius. At this time of the year summer is at it’s best
in Israel… The Galilee Sea’s sweet water has risen to the temperature of 30 de-
grees, and the heat outside can get to about 45 degrees. It’s very hot! In order to
keep the swimmers from dehydrating all swims started very early in the morning
even before sun rise. There were events of 6 KM, 3 KM and 1500 M in which we
took part. We were joined by Paralympics swimmers from other countries who
competed in the games. The start off point was from the water holding on to a
raft. The organizers had buoys put up in a triangle shape that led to a gate at the
finishing point. The swimming trail was easy to follow because the swimmers had
to always turn in one direction, always with their right shoulder near the buoy.
Our swimmers started coming out of the water , completing the swim , after 30
minutes. Last SO Israel swimmers to come out was after 54 minutes. All swim-
mers said the water was nice in the beginning and then became warm. All en-
joyed being part of such a big international sport event.
Special medals made especially for the games ,were given to all SO competitors.
All SO swimmers felt happy after the little medal ceremony, and very tired from
their short nights’ sleep because of the early start off. Again they felt honored to be
part of this big sport event, they felt unified.
Written by Judy Ziv.
Open water swimming coordinator
SO Israel.
SOEE OWS 6 August 2017
Ireland
On July 15th, Special Olympics Ireland, Eastern Region, held an Open Water competition in Wicklow Harbour, just south of Dublin City. 18 athletes took part in the event, which Special Olympics ran with support from Wicklow Swimming Club. 14 swimmers took part in a 1,500m swim – four years ago, 3 swimmers completed this distance, so we are delighted to see so many brave swimmers taking part. 4 swimmers completed a 500m swim – for most it was their first time competing in Open Water.
Most of the swimmers had taken part in a week of water safety training, helped by the fantastic team in Wicklow Water Safety, so they had put in a lot of hard work to be ready to compete.
We were very fortunate with the weather conditions – it was very warm (for Ireland!) and we had a very light, gentle breeze, which made for perfect swimming conditions. All the athletes got great support and encouragement from their friends and fmailies, coach-es, volunteers and the public at the beach.
Our awards were given Carol Finlay, from Swim Ireland, swimming’s National Governing Body in Ireland and the athletes were also awarded a Swim Ireland “Swim a Mile” award.
We could not have run this event without the wonderful support of the volunteers, Wicklow Swimming Club and Wicklow Water Safe-ty – so a huge thank you to everyone and congratulations to all the athletes who took part.
Written by Pam Beacom & Jenny Hughes
Swimming Coordinators – SO Eastern Region
SO Ireland.
oach-
’s National Governing Body in Ireland and the athletes were also
e-
The Netherlands
On the 17th of june we had our second open water competition. This ti-me we swam in a canal. It was an exciting day,! For this organisation was it the first time to see Special Olympics swim-mer doing there 1km.
In talks prior to this match, there were many questions about the Special Olympics athletes. Can they compete, can they do a 1km. The athletes did a wonderfull job! After their performance, they are closed in the heart of the whole organi-zation and the spectators.
In the Netherlands we are lucky that we have 2 competitions. On the 26th of Au-gust was our second race of the season. We had an 750m course and an 1000m course. With 2 exciting races we had a great day!
1000m
750m
When you have more stories to tell, please let us know!!
We will go on with this newsletter. Do you have any question or need some tips/training or something else, let us know! We also can make a chapter in the newsletter about it.
Contact
Open water
swimming
Wendy Scholten
Jennifer Hughes