PANAJI: Gaby Dabrowski has been named ‘Special Olympics Champion Ambassador’ as the world sports governing body for persons with intellectual disabilities builds steam for #InclusionRevolution.
Special Olympics welcomed the tennis star in a tweet, saying: “Welcome to Special Olympics @GabyDabrowski! The Top 10 @WTA doubles star and two-time Grand Slam mixed doubles champion has been named a Special Olympics Champion Ambassador. Thank you for joining the #InclusionRevolution Gaby 👏”.
Dabrowski replied with a tweet, “Thank you!!! It’s an honor to be a part of the #InclusionRevolution!”
Canadian professional tennis player of Polish origin, 29-year-old Dabrowski is the 2017 French Open mixed-doubles title winner partnering India’s Rohan Bopanna.
Special Olympics offers 30-plus Olympic-style individual and team sports that provide meaningful training and competition opportunities for persons with intellectual disabilities. About 1.4 million people worldwide take part in Unified Sports, breaking down stereotypes about people with intellectual disabilities in a really fun way.
Special Olympics supports over 5 million athletes, 1 million coaches and volunteers, more than 100,000 competitions each year, and 32 Olympic-type sports through programs in more than 170 countries including India.
Meanwhile, Special Olympics Bharat’s national sports director Victor Vaz, who hails from Goa, has been doing a great job with various online events organised in the pandemic era. The national sports governing body for persons with intellectual disabilities recently conducted ‘Special Olympics Bharat Virtual Cricket competition 2021sponsored by ESPN’.
The competition witnessed the participation of 15 States from the country in this first-ever cricket (virtual) competition
“The participants supported by their parents and coaches have shown a lot of determination and hard work to achieve their best,” said Victor. “Every athlete took this as a mission and gave their best to make this one of the successful events,” he added.
