Special Olympics Suffolk’s partner organisation, ActivLives, held their inaugural Inclusive Boccia Tournament recently at the Mid Suffolk Leisure Centre, in Stowmarket. The event was a tremendous success with 47 competitors, playing a total of 129 ends of boccia, over 44 matches. There were over 90 people attending the event, during the course of the day.

“Boccia (pronounced ‘botcha’), is a truly inclusive sport”, said Mike McCarthy, from ActivLives. “It is a target game, played with balls, where all of the participants are required to sit down when they play. It is one of those sports that is relatively easy to play, but very difficult to play well. The sport is particularly suitable for players with a disability and has been on the Paralympic programme since 1984”.  

The tournament in Stowmarket consisted of four divisions, where players competed either in pairs or teams of three, in a round-robin format. Three of the four divisions were specifically for athletes with an intellectual (learning) disability. The day concluded with a ‘spider decider’ mass team event, with all 47 players involved.

“The response to today’s event has been absolutely brilliant. It is great to see so many people getting involved with the sport of boccia in this part of our county”, said Mike.

Many thanks to the brilliant team of volunteers and also to our other supporting partners Special Olympics GB, Boccia England, Everyone Active and Active Suffolk.

If you would like to find out more about getting involved with boccia in the Stowmarket, Ipswich or Felixstowe areas, please call ActivLives on 01473 345350 or email mike@activlives.org.uk  

The Mayflower Games were held in Plymouth in June, at the excellent Plymouth Life Centre. This was a multi-sport event organised by the Mayflower Specials Club. SO Suffolk was represented by Cameron Sherman in the badminton events. A great performance saw Cameron win a bronze medal, in a very competitive men’s singles competition, and silver in the men’s doubles event.

Well done Cam!

Special Olympics Suffolk hosted their Special Olympics Regional Athletics Competition on a sun soaked day at the Abbeycroft Leisure Centre track in Bury St Edmunds, an excellent venue which, combined with the continued summer sunny weather led to some top performances from the seven teams taking part. In addition to Special Olympics Suffolk, teams such as St Albans, Peterborough and Norfolk came from across the region and from further afield athletes travelled from London, Yorkshire and the West Midlands

Suffolk athletes came away with 9 Golds, 4 Silver and 6 Bronze with many others securing top 8 positions across a range of running, jumping and throwing events giving their large support plenty to be excited about. In total over 100 athletes took part in what was the biggest Special Olympics Athletics Competition in Suffolk to date. Spurred on by the success of the Special Olympics Suffolk gymnasts taking part in the Special Olympics International World Games in Berlin last week, the Special Olympics Suffolk athletes are looking forward to the Special Olympics Great Britain National Summer Games in a couple of years

Following on from last year’s success in the Suffolk Community Games in running alongside the Suffolk Quadkids competition, the event was again an excellent example of inclusion involving disabled and non-disabled athletes. All this was only made possible through the contribution of a team of officials who volunteered their time and skills. The Suffolk team is co-ordinated by Orwell Panthers Athletics club which trains at Northgate Sports Centre in Ipswich on Wednesday evenings throughout the year.

For further information please contact Terry McEntee on terrymcentee474@gmail.com

Special Olympics Suffolk member Ed Boggis and his Personal Assistant, Lizzie Reid and Mike McCarthy, coach from ActivLives badminton club travelled to Berlin recently to join 20,000 volunteers from around the world to help at the Special Olympics World Games.

Coaches, judges, officials and volunteers play a vital part of the overall event management and Ed, Lizzie and Mike had important jobs to do to ensure the smooth running of the games. They had a great time meeting other volunteers and competitors from 170 countries, experiencing a whole range of sports and also enjoyed the vibrant atmosphere of the Olympic village.

Massive congratulations to Jack, Grace and Simon from Waveney Gymnastics Club in Lowestoft and Special Olympics Suffolk who smashed all of their disciplines in the finals of the gymnastics competition yesterday. Jack and Grace were overall winners gaining Gold medals a-piece and Simon came second overall gaining Silver. In addition, all gymnasts came away with a clutch of medals from each discipline – massive congratulations to the dynamic trio who represented both Great Britain and Suffolk in Berlin. All three were impeccable in their sportsmanship at the games and we are all very proud of them!

SOGB coaches Ellen and Alex (also from Special Olympics Suffolk and Waveney Gymnastics Club) supported the team throughout and were delighted at the team and individual performances. Huge thanks to both for their devotion, passion and dedication to the sport and the gymnasts.

Special Olympics Suffolk were invited by Special Olympics Norwich for a local derby on 14^th May 2023 at the UEA sports complex.

Everyone had a great day and were happy to meet old friends from past events. 

This email has been sent to all Special Olympics GB members   

Hi everyone, 

Hoping this reaches you very well. 

As you may be aware, following the launch of our 2021 strategy Inclusion in Action, we introduced new Working Groups as a way to ensure our membership voice is heard across all key areas of the organisation.  

Our Network Structure Working Group launched at the end of 2022 has been working on building a plan for how we evolve and innovate our structure and foundations.  

Now, we are very pleased to announce the launch of the first stage of research for the Special Olympics GB Network Structure Working group: 

Network Structure Survey  

supported by Corporate Partner TwoCircles 

Click HERE to access the online survey. 

WATCH the video (below) describing the objectives of this consultation and how we plan on using your valuable insights.

You can also click HERE (scroll to Network Structure Survey Toolkit) to access our Survey Toolkit, which includes:

• the survey link
• the survey brief (plus an Easy-Read version)
• a FAQ document
• glossary and guidance
• a printable QR code.

By completing our survey, you will be in the chance of winning: 

1. England replica shirt signed by Special Olympics GB Principal Ambassador Jack Grealish
2. £25 Amazon Voucher (5 AVAILABLE) 

The winners will be selected at random from completed entries.  

The survey should take about 10-15 minutes and does have to completed in one sitting. 

The survey closes on Friday 30^th June, so get going! 

Be in touch with us if you have any questions. 

Many thanks, 

Emma & Network Structure Working Group

Our fabulous gymnasts from Special Olympics Suffolk will head off to the Special Olympics World Games in Berlin from Waveney Gymnastics Club very soon. As you can see, they are all kitted out and proud to be representing Great Britain.

We will be updating you on their progress every step of the way!

The Special Olympics World Games in Berlin are only a few weeks away and gymnasts Jack, Grace and Simon, and coaches Alex and Ellen from Waveney Gymnastics club in Lowestoft are making their final preparations to compete and coach alongside the very best of the world and at the highest level of international sport. At Special Olympics Suffolk, we couldn’t be more proud of them as they represent their clubs, the County and their Country. We wish them the very best of luck and can’t wait to hear how they enjoyed the experience on their return!

Special Olympics Great Britain will be sending a team of around 150 athletes, coaches and support staff to the Special Olympics World Games Berlin 2023 which runs from June 17-23 and features more than 7,000 athletes from 190 countries. Jack, Grace and Simon make up over half of the British gymnastics squad which is a fantastic tribute to Waveney Gymnastics club who are recognized as one of the best in the country for supporting athletes with disabilities.

Also travelling to Berlin are Mike McCarthy, ActiveSport Development Officer and Head Coach of Special Olympic Suffolk’s Badminton and Boccia teams. Mike is experienced in organizing and running local and regional inclusive events in both sports and will be officiating at the badminton as a competition management volunteer. He is very much looking forward to “the opportunity to be involved with an event like the Special Olympics World Games. It looks and sounds like it will be a very special experience. This global event is the culmination of a -year cycle of weekly inclusive sports activity that is provided in clubs and groups all around the world, including what we offer right here in Suffolk”.

Edward Boggis and his Personal Assistant Lizzie Reid are looking forward to volunteering at the World Games in June. “It was a pretty stiff application process” explained Lizzie “but we got through it and are delighted to have been accepted as volunteers for the Badminton event. We have been asked to volunteer for five days of competition. Our duties will be meeting and greeting competitors and spectators and directing them to their events. We have both completed the necessary online training and are ready to go!”     The Special Olympics World Games prides itself as being fully and actively inclusive, so disabled people are encouraged to join the ranks of event volunteers. Ed has Down’s syndrome, is a member of Special Olympics Suffolk and will be supported by Lizzie and family members to make the trip and to volunteer. A keen badminton player himself, Ed is “excited about going to the games and helping out at the competition”.

We join together at Special Olympics Suffolk to wish our gymnasts, the coaches and the volunteers the very best of luck!

If you or someone you know are also making the trip to Berlin in connection with the Special Olympics World Games, please let us know!