THERE are plans to introduce more sports for athletes with special needs in the country after Team Fiji’s success at the 2019 Special Olympics World Games in Dubai.
Despite facing many obstacles Special Olympics Fiji was able to send a 35-member contingent to Abu Dhabi.
Fiji entered teams in football and table tennis at the Special Olympic Games for the first time winning bronze medals in each event.
Special Olympics chairman Bishwa Sidal said being around for 40 years was a long time seeing sports develop for athletes with disabilities. Sidal said now they would have to evaluate what went right and what did not go well in Dubai.
“Definitely we will start to look for a plan and support and train officials,” he said.
“What we are thinking as we are involved in a lot of individual sports is to get into many more team sports. Get more athletes to participate is team sport.
“We have introduced cricket, football, basketball and netball. Tag rugby is the priority on the list since these athletes love to watch and play rugby.
“We are looking at introducing Australian Football League (AFL) in Fiji and we are in talking with our counterparts in Australia.”
Sidal said one of the obstacles they faced was financial constraints.
“We had been struggling in terms of putting some dollars together to get the athletes to training and this year we had a big team,” he said.
“When government came up last year, that was the turning point. They committed that they would go long as we went on with our preparations.
“When Digicel came in to say they were there to support the government it was a blessing in disguise.
“We thank the government of the day and Digicel for making our dreams come true,” he said.
