Irish woman Mary Davis has been announced as the first non-american global chief executive of the Special Olympics.
Ms Davis said she was honoured with the appointement and that it was a reflection of the people of Ireland and the country’s Special Olympics volunteers.
She told RTÉ news that it has been “phenomenal” to see the growth of the Special Olympics over the years.
A former teacher in Ballymun, Dublin, Ms Davis has been involved with the Special Olympics since 1978.
She was in charge of the Special Olympics World Summer Games which took place in Ireland in 2003, the first time the event was held outside the United States. It was the biggest sporting event in that world that year, at a cost of €57 million, and involved 38,000 athletes, coaches and families.
In 2011, Ms Davis unsucessfully contested the presidential election.
Following her announcement as the organisations’s chief executive on Thursday, Ms Davis said she believed there was always more to be done for people with learning disabilities.
“Our work is never done I think what we want to ensure is that people with an intellectual disability have the same rights as everybody else,” she said.