The four-day event offered practical and oral swimming certified training to 100 coaches — 52 from Cairo and 48 from other Egyptian cities in order to prepare an army of well-trained Special Olympics coaches. Amr Mohieddin, SO Egypt swimming coordinator, explained, “Our main target in Special Olympics Egypt is to increase the number of athletes and to reach out to the mentally challenged in the governorates so that coaches can start training them. We are in only six governorates right now — Giza, Cairo, Assuit, Port Said, Ismailia and Alexandria. But we are ready to add more training centres after we taught the coaches we needed.” Allison Lee, the US Embassy's assistant culture attaché, said the embassy has a sports diplomacy programme in which they bring American coaches and experts to their Egyptian counterparts. “This year we decided to focus on the needs of intellectually challenged athletes. This is the first time we work with Special Olympics and part of our efforts is to promote the inclusion of everybody in society. We invited coaches and athletes from Special Olympics Washington and Pennsylvania to train with their counterparts in Egypt. We are trying to raise awareness for special needs and to provide some skills to coaches. If we can have a positive relationship with young people and introduce them to American youth to have a better understanding, that'll be great. We also want to highlight the positive things going on in Egypt and show Americans that it is not all about demonstrations in Egypt but that life is going on in various fields.” “We send Egyptian athletes and coaches to the US and vice versa,” Hanan Asaad, the embassy's sports diplomacy programme coordinator, said. “We work on a specific sport. The first year we train the athletes and coaches in Cairo, then the next year send them to the United States to train and work with their counterparts. We have been doing this programme for five years. It's a kind of cultural exchange. We want to work with youth and reach out to young people because they are the future of Egypt.” Swimming coach Denis Moat is the swimming program co-coordinator in Pennsylvania. Moat became interested in the field as she had a disabled sister who would constantly swim with the able-bodied. The sister was never able to achieve anything until Special Olympics was introduced as a programme. It was a perfect fit. “I got interested in mentally challenged athletes and since then I volunteered with the Special Olympics Pennsylvania,” Moat said. “I learned a lot more than what I taught. The Egyptian coaches and athletes are wonderful. Working with them is fun. It's our first time in Egypt but it is terrific. The people are very welcoming and the coaches and athletes are very cooperative and willing to learn.” Dennis Crean is an active marathon open water swimmer and the founder and CEO of Wave One Swimming, an internationally recognised open water swimming organisation. Crean stages races and swim clinics and develops swim programmes for teams and organisations worldwide. He is a USA Swimming and USMS certified coach. His 25 years of pool and open water training and racing gives him the experience and expertise to cover a broad range of swim topics, including the fundamentals of swimming -- stroke technique and proper body positioning; advanced pace/interval/distance training; and open water race preparation, safety and strategy techniques. “Egyptian trainees are very enthusiastic,” says Crean. “We train them to blow bubbles when introduced to the water for the first time. We also teach them how to wear goggles and get used to them. It's not so important to train them on doing many things as it is to make sure they apply what you explain.” According to Crean, “water treats everybody the same.” Also attending the training were two Special Olympics athletes from the US, both from Pennsylvania: Gail Morning and Kester Edwards. Gail was fortunate enough to be chosen to represent the US at two Special Olympics World Games competitions. In 2003 she travelled to Dublin, Ireland, and won three gold medals in power lifting. In 2007, she was a member of the US swimming team and won a bronze medal as part of the women's relay team. Edwards is a disciplined athlete, selected in 1987 and 1991 to represent Special Olympics Trinidad and Tobago at the International Special Olympics Games where he won a gold medal in football and silver and bronze in aquatics.
