KSA Special Olympics Team
Earlier this month, Saudi Arabia announced the appointment of Princess Reema Bint Bandar Bin Sultan as the head of the newly established Saudi Special Olympics Federation, which coincided with the Kingdom’s decision to participate in the Abu Dhabi 2019 Special Olympics World Summer Games. Three weeks following this landmark announcement, Saudi Arabia is once again making headlines, this time for its female basketball team.
In what has been described as the first of its kind to be held in the Middle East and North Africa, as well as the largest sports and humanitarian event in the world in 2019, the Special Olympics saw the Saudi female basketball team, which features five athletes with Down Syndrome, not only participating for the first time in such an event but also taking home gold, beating Ivory Coast 26-11.The players are amongst a group of 21 women from the Kingdom who made history by becoming the first-ever female athletes to compete across various sports including bocce, track and field, and bowling.
Speaking on Indiatimes, Raja Al-Hammouri, the head coach of Saudi Arabia’s female unified basketball team, said, “It is fantastic that we got to participate, the athletes were delighted when they got the news of participation. As you saw they played really well and we knew they have the capability to beat any team […] It was a very good experience for them. They have continuously competed at the national level with each other but this the first time these female athletes have participated at the Special Olympics.”
Over 7,500 athletes and 3,000 coaches representing more than 190 nations participated in 24 officially sanctioned Olympic-style sports in venues across Abu Dhabi and Dubai. The various Saudi teams that participated in this year’s event took home a total of 18 gold, nine silver, and 13 bronze medals.
