Special Olympics Egypt athletes were able to snare four medals — two gold and two bronze — at the Invitational World Summer Games held a year ahead of the official Special Olympics World Summer Games 2015 to take place in Los Angeles from 22 July to 2 August, Abeer Anwar reports. Home to one of the oldest Special Olympics programmes in the world, Egypt was invited to represent the MENA Region at the Invitational World Summer Games. The Egyptian programme was represented by Mohamed Gaballah and Mohamed Karam. Gaballah collected two gold medals in butterfly and backstroke and one bronze in freestyle, while Karam secured a bronze medal in 100m running. A total of 1,200 athletes representing 13 countries participated in the event that ran from 5 to 9 June, in addition to Special Olympics California, the host. Los Angeles is set to welcome more than 7,000 Special Olympics athletes from 170 nations to compete in 21 Olympic-type sports. The Special Olympics World Summer Games will return to the United States after 16 years, having last been held in the United States in 1999 in Raleigh, North Carolina. The most recent World Summer Games were the 2011 Games that recently concluded in July in Athens, Greece. The 2015 Special Olympics World Summer Games are expected to bring more than a half-million people to the greater Los Angeles area.
