A team of Special Olympics Suffolk athletes represented our county with great distinction at a recent Para-Badminton tournament held in Gillingham, Kent.

The tournament, which was hosted by Kent Badminton, was a great success with all of our team of eight players competing in the singles and doubles events. There were some terrific performances from our group, all of whom faced stiff opposition from players from across the south of England.

Congratulations to our players and many thanks to all of the volunteers, family members and support workers who supported our players in competing at this event. The next tournament for many of our players will be the Special Olympics GB National event in Walsall in August.   

Special Olympics Suffolk delivery partner, ActivLives, hosted another very successful Inclusive Badminton Tournament on 17th May, at Gainsborough Sports Centre in Ipswich. The event was action packed with 23 competitors from inclusive groups in Ipswich, Wimbledon and Canterbury, playing in singles and doubles events.

  These inclusive competitions are specifically for athletes who have an intellectual (learning) disability, with this particular tournament being sanctioned and supported by Special Olympics GB, as part of their ‘National Summer Series of Sport’, which is being held across the country throughout the summer.  

“The atmosphere today has been absolutely brilliant – the athletes are so supportive of each other and the standard of play is ever improving”, said Mike McCarthy, from ActivLives.

Many thanks to the brilliant team of volunteers who made the event happen, and to all of the partner organisations: ActivLives, Special Olympics Suffolk, Special Olympics GB, Suffolk Community Foundation and Ipswich Borough Council, who continue to support events such as this one.   

If you would like to find out more about badminton for players with a learning disability, please call ActivLives on 01473 345350 or email mike@activlives.org.uk     

A beautiful day at Carlton Keighley, West Yorkshire set the stage for the BKS Athletics Disability Open 2025, where sunshine and scenery matched the enthusiasm and talent on display. Athletes from across the country came together to celebrate inclusive sport — and Special Olympics Suffolk and Orwell Panthers Athletics athletes, Hamish and Gracie made a huge impact.

Hamish bagged gold in the 50m,100m, Discus, and Relay and a bronze in the Shot Put and Gracie was awarded Gold in the Ball Throw and Relay with a Silver in the 100m and Bronze in Standing Long Jump.

Both athletes also recorded personal bests across multiple events, a testament to their hard work and determination.

The atmosphere was inspiring, the performances electric, and the pride immeasurable. Huge congratulations to Hamish and Gracie for representing Suffolk with distinction and heart.

As the 2025 season unfolds, hopes are high for even more opportunities to compete, improve, and inspire. With talent like this, the future of Suffolk disability athletics looks incredibly bright.

The next event takes place on 28th June at the Sports Park at UEA, Norwich where both athletes will be joined by fellow competitors from Orwell Panthers Athletics Club and athletes from the Eastern Region and beyond. Watch this space!

ActivLives held another of their very successful Inclusive Boccia Tournaments recently in Ipswich. The tournament attracted 33, mostly Suffolk-based competitors, including two divisions of athletes with an intellectual disability. There was some great boccia played, as the pairs and teams fought it out to decide the final divisional placings.

ActivLives are very grateful to their delivery partners Special Olympics Suffolk, and to Special Olympics GB, Suffolk Community Foundation and Ipswich Borough Council, for their continued support with these events.

Many thanks also to all of the great volunteers from ActivLives and Special Olympics Suffolk, who made this event such a success.  

If you would like to find out more about how to get involved with boccia, the world’s most inclusive sport, please contact Mike McCarthy on 01473 345350 or email mike@activlives.org.uk  

You are invited to a workshop on the University of Suffolk.

The workshop will be on 8th April 2025. The workshop will start at 10am and finish at 1pm.

We will meet at the University of Suffolk Waterfront reception at 10am.

The address is:

Waterfront Building University of Suffolk, 19 Neptune Quay, Ipswich, IP4 1QJ

We will do a short tour of the University of Suffolk. The tour will finish in the Health and Wellbeing building.

When we get to the health and wellbeing building, we will do activities about movement and healthy living.

You will work with student physiotherapists. A physiotherapist is a professional who uses exercise and movement to help people stay healthy.

You can do some exercises and movement if you would like to. If you do not want to do any exercises or movement that is OK. You can choose.

Wear casual and comfortable clothes to the workshop.

We will have breaks in the morning. Bring a snack and a drink with you.

If you want someone to come with you to help you take part just ask!

If you have other ideas how we can make it easy to take part, tell Danielle.

If you have questions or you would like to take part in the workshop, please email Danielle to book your place.

Email Danielle: d.ramsey@uos.ac.uk

On Sunday 16th March, athletes with learning disabilities from Suffolk joined together at St Joseph’s College, Ipswich for a ‘Celebration of Sport’ to mark the 10th year anniversary of Special Olympics Suffolk’.

During the morning of the event, our Special Olympics Suffolk volunteer sports coaches and their assistants used the fabulous sports facilities at St Josephs College to offer athletes the opportunity to try five different sporting activities in athletics, badminton, boccia, gymnastics and table cricket. It was great fun and enjoyed by all!

An army of volunteers helped out at the event in a variety of ways: parking cars, registering athletes, taking photographs, and providing fundraising refreshments, cakes and a tombola. Athletes were supported by pupils and staff from St Joseph’s College and undergraduate physiotherapy students from the University of Suffolk.

Project 21 kicked off the afternoon programme of activities with a dance and theatrical medley of The Lion King, and injected a lot of energy into a flashmob dance which was enjoyed by most of the audience. This was followed by Special Olympics Suffolk athletes, Ed, Hamish, Simon and Grace who shared inspirational stories that highlighted how sport had influenced their lives.

The athletes were presented by ‘keepsake coins’ designed and made by Realise Futures in Ipswich to mark the 10 year celebration and guests from Special Olympics Great Britain and Active Suffolk presented special awards to four athletes for outstanding dedication in sport.

Huge thanks to all who helped to make this day such a resounding success.

As part of the tenth year anniversary celebrations, some of our dedicated sports coaches spent the evening of Tuesday 11th March 2025 in a lecture room at the University of Suffolk at a workshop hosted by Mencap. The aim of the workshop was to help clubs, coaches and providers of sport understand how to support people with a learning disability to access sporting opportunities in an inclusive environment.

Our coaches joined in with activities, sharing ideas and experiences with other sports coaches, reflecting on their own coaching and consolidating their learning and practice.

The workshop covered

• What a learning disability is.
• The issues and barriers people with a learning disability face when accessing sport.
• Different ways of communicating with people with a learning disability.
• Different ways of including people with a learning disability in sport.
• How to promote sport to people with a learning disability.
• Different pathways and opportunities available in learning disability sport.

Active Suffolk, Mencap, the University of Suffolk and Special Olympics Suffolk worked collaboratively to host this workshop, so many thanks to all those involved for a lively, informative evening. Thanks to our coaches for generously giving up their time to attend the course and for their continuous support and dedication to our athletes.

Most of you should by now have received an invitation to the Special Olympics Suffolk (SOS) ‘Celebration of Sport’ to mark our 10^th Anniversary.  For those who haven’t received one or have mislaid it, here it is!

We have organised a range of ‘come and try’ sporting activities in the morning for you to try (badminton, boccia, athletics, table cricket and gymnastics), and in the afternoon we have a dance performance by Project 21, followed by presentations by a some of the SOS athletes and then, finally some awards will be presented to SOS members. 

We are hoping that as many of you as possible will be able to attend, so if you haven’t already done so please RSVP to Loraine as soon as possible, her email address is on the invitation.  If you have already replied, thank you and we look forward to seeing you on the 16^th March