“I’m so proud of her. It’s brilliant, she’s brilliant, they’re all brilliant,” said a Dublin woman Ann Byrne, her eyes welled up with emotion, just after her granddaughter Sarah Byrne and her fellow basketballers on the Irish team had beaten Italy 24:16 at the Special Olympic semi-finals today.
Around her on court four of the Olympic indoor complex the atmosphere was electric, as it had been throughout the suburb 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 with themselves and allow their abilities to shine even brighter.
“It’s all about participation. The medals are only a bonus,” says Pam Beacom, whose daughter Aisling has picked up two in swimming.
However, after 23 wins today, the Irish haul now stands at a total of 67 medals: 20 gold, 32 silver and 15 bronze.
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 work flat out on double shifts, so great has the demand been for their expertise.
The programme offers a range of medical treatment, from dental work to hearing tests, to athletes.
Ms Ryan-Strappe says she has been reduced to tears after fitting glasses on athletes who have never had an eye test in their life.
But behind the glowing praise the general organisation of the games and the state of the art venues, a number parents believe that 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 that the games haven’t engaged Greeks in the same way that those in 2003 did in Ireland. Special Olympics Ireland head Matt English says that “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 Greek print media has been minimal, with very little substantial interest shown in the event, despite the hundreds of Greek athletes taking part. Typifying the apathy were the many empty seats reserved in the media box for the Greek daily newspapers at the opening ceremony, which cost €7 million.
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 that he was present.
Nor has there been any live daily coverage on state broadcaster ERT, which was so jealous of its exclusive right 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.
Summing up the views of many Greeks were the comments of Maria Tsalma, a student who volunteered for the games.
“I don’t know why our government agreed to organise these games. Given our dire financial situation, we shouldn’t have taken them on.”