The biggest festival of sport to take place in Ireland will begin in 11 weeks time. Are we up to speed, asks James Fitzgerald
As sporting events go, they don't get much bigger than the Special Olympics World Games. Twice the size of last year's Commonwealth Games in Manchester and the biggest sports event taking place in the world this year, the Games have departed the US for the first time to come to Ireland.
In the third week in June, some 30,000 people will arrive for the biggest festival of sport ever to take place here. In the intervening 11 weeks, the 7,000 athletes representing 164 countries from Azerbaijan to Zambia will be fine-tuning their skills, making last-minute preparations and getting ready for the journey to Ireland. They will be accompanied by around 3,000 coaches and delegates and a further 20,000 or so family members and other supporters expected to make the trip.
Meanwhile, 30,000 volunteers here at home are being trained and mobilised to make sure that the complex logistics of an event of this size and nature run smoothly. There are drivers, caterers, parking attendants, interpreters, marshals, medical professionals, administrators and countless other workers, all taking time away from their day jobs to offer their services at the venues.
Before the Games themselves, 170 towns and villages around Ireland - North and South - will host the various teams, giving them a taste of Irish culture and allowing them to acclimatise before the competition proper gets underway. Up to 800 households are opening their doors to athletes and delegates. Some host towns are using B&Bs and hotels - at discount rates despite it being peak season - to accommodate their guests
"This has engaged communities in ways that not many other events could do," says World Games chief executive, Mary Davis. "We thought it could be done, but it has overwhelmed us in the way the people of Ireland have reacted to it."
The Special Olympics began in 1968 when the first World Games were held in Chicago. Since then, the movement has become truly global and more than one million people with a disability are now involved in training and sports programmes around the world.
In light of this, Special Olympics Inc, based in Washington DC, decided to take the Games away from the US for the first time and, in the mid-1990s invited applications from interested countries.
Ireland's involvement in the Special Olympics began back in 1978 when 200 athletes took part in the first National Games. The following year, Ireland participated in the World Games in New York.
Preparations for the Irish bid to host the Games began in 1995 and, in March 1999, Ireland edged out a strong application from Argentina to secure the Games for 2003. It was thought that while the sporting facilities here were not as comprehensive as those in Argentina, an unquantifiable passion and desire to host the Games is what swung the selection committee in favour of Ireland's bid.
But the price of hosting such a major event does not come cheap.
Apart from the capital investments and provision of sporting facilities, the teams have to be fed, accommodated and transported for the duration of their stay. While the individual teams must fund their own passage to the Games, everything after that is free. The Irish taxpayer has so far put in around €13 million, with a further 6.5 million coming from the EU and 1.6 million from the Northern Ireland Government.
In total, around 56 million has been raised through public and private donations, with many companies opting to donate in kind rather than cash. The sponsorship programme, to which Bank of Ireland is the main contributor, has yielded 20 million.
The 21 different sporting events in the Games will take place in and around Dublin, with the exception of the roller skating, which will be held in the King's Hall, Belfast. Spectator admission to all the competitions is free, as is entry to the opening ceremony, which will take place in Croke Park on Saturday, June 21st. According to organisers, all the venues will be ready in time for the Games, including, of course, the brand new National Aquatic Centre in Abbotstown, completed earlier this year.
Aside from the sports, there are a number of other events taking place during the Games, including a school enrichment programme designed to teach Irish students more about the Games and people with disabilities. There will also be an art exhibition running for the duration in various host towns and Dublin, and a programme designed to improve the athletes' health, fitness and well-being. This free service will include eye and ear tests, dentistry, podiatry and physiotherapy.
Although the organisers are proud to be billing this as "the largest sporting event in the world in 2003", they have been made aware that with that privilege comes the headache of ensuring the security of thousands of participants, about half a million spectators, and the wider Irish population. Because of the war, the six-strong Iraqi team withdrew earlier this week, but at the time of writing it was not thought that the US team - the largest in the Games with around 1,000 athletes - would follow suit.
"We are still hopeful that if the situation changes, then the Iraqi team can still come back in . . . We have had no indication that other countries will withdraw. We are in constant contact with the US group and there has been no talk of them pulling out," says Mary Davis.
Meanwhile, the Garda Síochána says that the nature of the Special Olympics means it is currently being considered a "low-risk event" as regards terrorism.
According to a Garda spokesman, a committee has been operative for the past six months, discussing all policing issues relating to the Games. The experience gained from hosting the Tour de France and other major sporting events over the years means that gardaí are well-placed to deal with any eventuality, he says.
One issue is bound to be the traffic congestion caused by the transportation of athletes and delegates to the various events around Dublin. The Games could put up to 265 courtesy cars and 400 coaches on the city's streets at any one time. Davis says that the full co- operation of the gardaí and local authorities has been secured to ensure that traffic runs as smoothly as possible.
"I don't envisage huge hold-ups," she says. "We will be transporting the athletes very early in the morning . . . and leaving the venues after rush hour. June is a time when schools are closed and there is less traffic on the roads anyway."
But whatever about the potential joys or irritants while the Games are still going on, Davis is just as concerned with how Dublin and the rest of the country will be affected long after the last medal has been presented and the courtesy cars returned.
"One of the reasons we wanted to do this was to raise awareness of people with disabilities," she says. "We wanted to be able to celebrate their ability and to show people that they have great talents in sport. It is quite inspiring to see the athletes competing for the sheer love of it and the challenge of trying to be the best they can be.
The other Olympic movements could learn a lot from it."