“I’M SO proud of her. It’s brilliant, she’s brilliant, they’re all brilliant,” said Dublin woman Ann Byrne, her eyes welled up with emotion, after her granddaughter Sarah Byrne and her fellow Irish basketballers had beaten Italy 24-16 at the Special Olympic semi-finals yesterday.
Around her on court four of the Olympic indoor complex the atmosphere was electric, as it had been throughout the match, in which 14-year-old Sarah was the star performer and team lynchpin.
Like all events involving any of the 126 Irish athletes, the game was attended by many from the tight-knit and passionate Irish delegation – made up of 49 coaches, 400 family members and 200 volunteers – as well as other Team Ireland athletes.
No matter whether they win or lose, the delegation’s support for their athletes in Athens is total, in recognition of the huge individual achievement for each member of the team in making it to an international sporting event.
And the feeling is that every performance in Athens, whether it brings in medals or not, only serves to strengthen the Special Olympics movement at home, to encourage even more athletes to compete among themselves and allow their abilities to shine.
“It’s all about participation. The medals are only a bonus,” says Pam Beacom, whose daughter Aisling has picked up two in swimming.
If the Irish have brought one thing to the Athens games, it’s that deep sense of community that made the 2003 games in Dublin the resounding success they were.
The 200 Irish volunteers, who each had to raise €3,250 to participate and give up two weeks of their time, are highly regarded for their diligence and helpfulness.
Although they were excused from their duties during last week’s two-day general strike, all the volunteers showed up at their posts, most organising taxis paid for out of their own pocket.
At the healthy athletes programme run in conjunction with the games, Tipperary volunteer Mary G Ryan-Strappe and her colleagues have opted to worked flat-out on double shifts, so great has the demand been for their expertise.
But behind the glowing praise for the general organisation of the games and the state-of-the-art venues, some parents believe the welfare of the athletes has not always been to the fore, blaming the Athens organising committee for a number of shortcomings.
“It’s been a test of endurance,” said one mother, citing the 17-hour ferry journey without cabins that the Irish team took from Rhodes, their host town, and the “ridiculously long” opening ceremony that ended so late that it left athletes with less than two hours’ sleep before their first day’s sporting events.
The Irish delegation also senses the games haven’t engaged Greeks in the same way that the 2003 games engaged Ireland.
Special Olympics Ireland head Matt English says “it’s obvious that the city of Athens hasn’t embraced it the same way as the whole of Ireland did in 2003”.
The coverage in the print media has been minimal, with little interest shown in the event.
Even prime minister George Papandreou failed to turn up to the opening, despite being scheduled to speak, but that didn’t stop one newspaper, To Vima, from reporting he was present.
Nor has there been any live daily coverage on state broadcaster ERT, which was so jealous of its exclusive rights to film the opening ceremony that it prohibited media from other countries from doing so.
Many Greeks, shocked that the 2011 games cost €35-€40 million more to stage than those in Ireland and Shanghai in 2003 and 2007, respectively, wonder why it came to Athens at all.