After the success of the 8th Special Olympics Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Summer Games in 2014 held in Cairo last year, SO Lebanon will host its first ever regional Winter Games from 30 January to 5 February 2016. “After the great success of the latest version of the Summer Games held in Cairo, SO Mena received a great push and decided to walk in the footsteps of the other Special Olympics regions, holding the Winter Games for the first time,” Ayman Abdel-Wahab, SO MENA regional president and managing director, announced in a press conference held in Beirut, Lebanon. The SO Summer Games were held in Cairo from 5-13 December under the patronage and attendance of Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi. From now on, the Summer and Winter Games will each be held once every two years. “This will give the Special Olympics athletes a greater chance of competing and a variety of sports to train on as winter sports are completely different from summer,” Abdel-Wahab said. The press conference held in Beirut unveiled the mascot of the SO MENA Winter Games. The Lebanese city of Faraya was chosen as the host city for the Games due to its cold weather and abundance of snow. As Hala Al-Husseini, SO Lebanon national director explained, “The games will feature four Olympic-type winter sports (floor hockey, snowshoeing, Alpine skiing and cross country skiing) with an anticipated participation of 370 athletes, 70 coaches, 60 youth and families representing 15 countries from the MENA region: Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Syria, Palestine, Jordan, Iraq, Tunisia, Libya, Algeria, Bahrain, Qatar, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. “We chose four light winter sports to start with this time as only three countries have snow but the others can use sand to train on,” Al-Husseini said. Abdel-Wahab added, “We have been taking part in almost every World Winter Games since the Alaska Winter Games in 2001 so we have a number of well-trained athletes who are used to competing in winter sports and who have won several medals. In addition, our Special Olympics athletes have great physical power that they need to show off and the best place for this is through sports competitions. Moreover, we need to include our mentally disabled athletes in all fields of life to play a role in society side by side with their able-bodied colleagues.” He also held up Al-Sisi as an example to be followed by all countries after he agreed to build four cities for the mentally disabled, each to include a school, technical training centre, hospital and a club. Abdel-Wahab met the Lebanese prime minister and the youth and sports minister in Beirut where they discussed the arrangements for the upcoming Games. They were pleased that Lebanon was awarded the event, Abdel-Wahab said, “which will send a message of inclusion and respect and to celebrate the determination, courage and special abilities of Special Olympics athletes”.
