Special Olympics at Sport Accord 2019
This year, the Gold Coast hosted the Sport Accord convention as a follow up to our successful Commonwealth Games in 2018. This is the convention where all of the global sports who are either in the Olympics or are trying to get into the Olympics convene to discuss the future direction of sport.
Special Olympics being there is major for us and is a real indication of our standing. It also gives us a good opportunity to further develop relationships with organisations that can really help Special Olympics grow.
This year’s Sport Accord went for six days. We talked to several countries in regards to World Games. One of them was the host, the Gold Coast. I was involved in that meeting, and they definitely seemed interested. It was an interesting exercise being involved in that process because each country had some very different visions for that event. But the fact that we had over five countries interested was a really good outcome!
What I loved about our discussions with the various sports federations is that they genuinely want to work with us; they see the value. To me, this is what Unified is really about, our athletes getting into the mainstream sports and being truly involved.
Also we had a good conversation during United through Sport, an event that focused on youth. They would like to start partnering up with us, particularly through Asia Pacific.
What really stuck out to me is how much of this event was about technology, and it seemed to be so centred on getting more revenue through fan interactions. But very little of it was about addressing one of the big, if not biggest issues in sports: the fact that there are less and less people playing sport and keeping physically active in the world.
The Senior Director of Sport Partnerships and Unified Sports at Special Olympics and I presented on Unified Sports at the final function. I made sure to talk about the real legacy of this program. It is a great way to not only engage with a different audience but also to improve the culture of the local sporting communities and make them a more accepting place. Through Unified Sports, these organisations can learn about the benefits of inclusion in sports. This will really help introduce and welcome more people into sport, which ultimately is what sport should be really focusing on.
To me, this is the biggest selling point we have to sport. This is something very powerful.
There were so many highlights during these six days, and it was a truly great event to be a part of.
