Once again P&O Ferries Ltd has generously come to the aid of six Special Olympics swimmers and their Coaches who are coming from Holland on Saturday 14 February to take part in the Special Olympics City of Hull Swimming Gala at Beverley Leisure Centre Pool.

The under-18 group is once again enjoying return overnight crossings courtesy of the P&O cruise ferry company so they can join over one hundred other athletes in the annual event which forms part of the Special Olympics Great Britain Programme. 

The Rotary Club of Hull is the main sponsor of the gala in Beverley which is a stepping-stone to the regional event later in the year and to the Special Olympics National Games which will be held in Leicester in July, 2009. A total of 125 athletes from eleven teams from the Yorkshire and Humberside Region, as well as the group from Holland, will be competing in 50 races. 

Special Olympics is the world’s largest sports organisation for people with learning disabilities, providing year round sports training and competition in over 23 Olympic-type sports for people aged 8 and over.  Founded in 1968 by the Kennedy family, it held the first International S.O. Games in Chicago with over 1000 athletes. Since then it has grown and spread worldwide, coming to the UK in 1978.   

Special Olympics is the only organisation that the International Olympic Committee has authorized to use the word “Olympic” in its title. 

The Hull and District gala started seven years ago with around fifty entrants but, having outgrown the East Hull Pools venue (where the group still trains regularly each Saturday afternoon), the event this year will be held at the Beverley Leisure Complex Pool, Flemingate, Beverley for the first time.

The Rotary Club of Hull provides medals for the competitors and Rotarians also act as timekeepers and marshals at the event as well as hosting the Dutch team and transporting them around Hull and District  to see some of the sights.