Overview of National Special Olympic Games Success

Athletes from the Cheshire Academy who competed at the 7th National Special Olympic games in Glasgow collected a total of 40 gold, 26 silver and 15 bronze medals, the largest medal haul of any individual club in the UK. This is remarkable considering the fact that these games were the largest sporting event to be held in the UK since the Commonwealth Games in Manchester.


Cheshire Academy Team Athletes, Coaches and local Mayors and Councillors

These games were the culmination of 18 months of tremendously hard work by the staff and coaches at the Cheshire Academy who had been training their athletes hard, in preparation for these games.

The Academy team was notable for a number of other reasons. Our team of 33 athletes and 12 coaches was one of the largest teams submitted by any individual club.

We also competed at a remarkable variety of sports, 6 in total quite unlike most other clubs who compete in one or two sports at the most. The Academy competed at artistic gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics, wheelchair rhythmic gymnastics, table tennis, boccia and football.

The age profile of the team was also quite exceptional. Early on, the Academy decided to concentrate on submitting a young team which befits our policy of developing youth. The average age of the Cheshire Academy team was under 14 years whilst the average age of the rest of the North West region for instance was over 24 years. The Academy had the youngest competitors at 5 of the 6 sports we entered.

Not only was the profile of the athletes very young but the profile of the coach / escorts were also young with the average age being mid 20's. There is little doubt that young coaches have tremendous energy and stamina which our young athletes really responded too.

A tremendous amount of effort went into fund raising for the team. With each athlete and coach expected to raise £500 to cover the cost of the entrance fee, kit, transport and such much of the year was spent organising bag packs, cake stalls, jewellery parties and sponsored events. The Academy insisted early on that the kit be of exceptionally good standard something which we managed to achieve.

Parents and staff pulled together and made a fantastic effort at collecting funds and we raised just over £27,000, just short of the £30,000 we were targeting.

At the games themselves athletes were given the opportunity to branch out and enjoy visits to a safari park, the science museum, transport museum, the Olympic games village (and take the opportunity to visit the Healthy Athlete tent) as well as able to travel round the different venues and see a whole variety of sports and to cheer their team mates. (Please see the photo gallery for photos of these events). They also had time to go to discos and to party and generally have a wonderful time.

Our local lighting and extinguishing of the torch ceremonies were wonderfully successful when local dignitaries, councillors and mayors were able to mingle with the athletes and coaches and see all the medals and hear their tales of success .(See lighting of the torch ceremony) and (extinguishing of the torch ceremony).

The tremendous medal tally was in itself reward enough for the hard work that everyone put in, however it was councillor Steven Roberts who was mayor of the Borough of Crewe and Nantwich during 2004/5 who, commenting on the medal tally put it succinctly when he stated.

"I know first hand the tremendous dedication and professionalism of the staff at the Cheshire Academy and South and East Cheshire Special Olympics as a whole. They have dedicated so much of their time training the athletes and getting the very best from every one of them I have come to expect extraordinary results from an extraordinary group of coaches and athletes".