Special Olympics eases back with one-day festival in Long Beach

Grunion Gazette - 6/13/2022

Jun. 13—Athletes from all over the Southland will converge on Cal State Long Beach Saturday, June 18, for the Spring Sports Festival, put on by Special Olympics Southern California.

This event will be a pared-down version of the annual two-day Summer Games that had taken place before the COVID-19 pandemic. But like almost every other gathering in the region, the games were canceled in 2020 and 2021.

"We're moving forward as fast as we can," said Calvin Lyons, president and CEO of Special Olympics of Southern. "Safety of our athletes is our priority and, at this point, we couldn't do it at the same level.

"We're only doing one day because that limits overnight stays," he added. "There won't be mingling of athletes and spectators, or medal ceremonies. But we'll be out there."

More than 1,000 athletes, families, volunteers and coaches are expected to participate Saturday. There will be four sports areas — athletics, basketball, bocce and swimming. There also will be the Healthy Athletes area, where participants can get a wide range of health checks, from dentistry to podiatry.

"We're only allowing athletes to compete in one sport," Lyons said. "There's such a thing as sports shape. Any athlete will tell you you can't just walk out onto the field and start playing. We don't want to see any injuries."

The number of athletes invited to the event was limited, and to be considered, athletes had to participate in Spring Season activities . Everyone had to show they were fully vaccinated against COVID-19 to sign up.

"We're recovering like everyone else — slowly," Lyons said. "We're looking at more hybrid activities going forward.

"But we brought 50 athletes to the USA Games (June 5-10 in Orlando, Florida)," he added. "And we won gold in Bocce. It was thrilling."

People can attend the Spring Sports Festival for free. Spectators will only be allowed in designated areas and will not have access to the field or court of play. Paid parking is available on campus.

The activities will be at the Walter Pyramid and the athletic fields to the west of the iconic arena. The event will run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The Special Olympics is dedicated to transforming the lives of those with intellectual disabilities through the joy of sport, every day, everywhere, according to its mission statement. Special Olympics of Southern California is based in Long Beach and covers chapters stretching from Ventura County to the Imperial Valley and all the counties in between.

For more information, go to sosc.org.

___

Visit Grunion Gazette, Long Beach, Calif. at https://www.presstelegram.com/the-grunion/

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.