Egypt is doing well at the World Summer Special Olympics Games being held in Athens. Inas Mazhar reports from the ancient Greek home of the Olympics Five medals are Egypt's harvest in the Games so far. The 77-man Egyptian delegation is taking part in 11 of the 22 scheduled sports events at the 13th edition of the Games. By the third day, the Egyptians claimed two silver and three bronze medals, all in swimming and power lifting. Egypt is the second biggest Arab delegation behind the UAE which comprises 150 male and female athletes. Mohamed Abdel-Halim and Nermine Hani claimed the two silver medals in both the 100 metres backstroke. In the same event, Mai Hashim took the bronze medal. Mahmoud El-Nahhas clinched two bronze medals in the 56 kg weight category. Other Egyptian athletes are performing well early on in badminton, basketball, athletics and football. However, the poor lodging, food and accommodation facilities offered to some of the participating teams, including Egypt, are causing problems. African and Latin American teams have complained the most. Egypt, Morocco, Libya, Syria and Iraq threatened to withdraw from the Games if the situation remained as is. Though promises were made before the opening ceremony and some changes were made, it got worse after the opening ceremony, and that's when the delegations threatened to leave. However, Ayman Abdel-Wahab, the Middle East and North Africa regional manager, managed to smooth ruffled feathers and persuade the teams to stay. Egypt Ambassador to Athens Tarek Adel told Egyptian reporters during a special gathering that he had sent a strongly worded letter of complaint to the organisers calling for better treatment of the Egyptians and called the conditions provided as unacceptable. The Games were launched earlier this week at the Panathenaic Stadium, home of the very first Olympics, and featured performances by Stevie Wonder and Vanessa Williams. The two-week event is the world's largest multi- day summer sporting event this year and will conclude after two weeks of competition on 4 July, uniting nearly 7,000 exceptionally talented athletes to compete in 22 Olympic-type sports, as well as 125 coaches from nearly 180 nations. Team USA alone comprises 315 athletes. "I think it was a great evening for Greece. It showed that you can come together in spite of all odds," said SOI president Timothy Shriver after the Games started. "And that picture last night was a beautiful picture for Greece and for the world because it says that no matter what country we come from, no matter what religion we are, no matter what our ethnic backgrounds, we can come together in the spirit of compassion, understanding and hope. That's a great message for the world at this time." On the second day of the Games, Shriver's sister, Maria and other dignitaries gathered for the unveiling of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Park in Athens to honour the memory and monumental contributions of the Special Olympics founder as part of the World Summer Games 2011. Shriver gave a statement paying tribute to her mother's legacy as her brothers Tim Shriver, Mark Shriver and Robert Shriver looked on, along with their spouses and children. Wife of the US vice-president, Jill Biden, Olympians Michelle Kwan, Yao Ming, Dikembe Mutombo, Bart Conner, Edwin Moses and Donna De Varona were present. Shriver addressed the audience on the occasion: "Mummy would be thrilled at this park is in Athens because it's named after the Goddess Athena. As we all know, the Goddess Athena is the goddess of wisdom, but she is never depicted without her shield and without her helmet because she is a warrior. At heart, she is a warrior. As every woman knows, you have to be both. You have to know when to be wise. You have to know when to be compassionate. And you have know when to put on your helmet, take out your spear, put on your shield and go to war -- and fight for what you believe in. And Mummy was, at her heart, a warrior. She woke up every day and fought... that's what she did her whole life. The park is marked by a marble monument inscribed with the word "EYNIKH" (ef-ni-ki), Greek for Eunice, which translated means "Good Victory" -- a phrase that so accurately describes her commitment to human triumphs both large and small. Located in the Maroussi municipality of Athens, it is close to the OAKA stadium, which, built for the 2004 Olympics, is now home to many of Special Olympics World Summer Games sporting events including tennis, athletics and volleyball. Also speaking were George Patoulis, mayor of the Municipality of Maroussi; Joanna Despotopoulou, president of Special Olympics World Summer Games Athens 2011; Archbishop Bartholemew of Constantinople New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch; and Deon Namiseb, Sargent Shriver International Global Messenger.On Monday, leadership from all corners of the global sports community gathered at a press conference held at the Main Media Centre to explain how Special Olympics utilises the power of sport to create social change and inclusion and to promote development and peace. The UN secretary-general's special adviser on sport for development and peace, Wilfried Lemke, told Tim Shriver: "We are just in the first steps of this movement you call a revolution. I'm a marathon runner and I know that we are not more than 1,000 metres in a long run to bring persons with disabilities to the forefront." Lemke continued with conviction that "we all have to have these people in the centre of our society and not exclude them. We see you and your powerful work and of course I tell everybody in the world wherever I am that you can believe me that this is one of my priorities, to work to bring these people to the centre of our society. The joy and the happiness and the pure joy of sports, that is the core of the meaning that I can see here in Special Olympics. That is the reason why you can be absolutely sure, Tim, that the United Nations family will follow you on your way." Special Olympics called for key partnerships with international organisations, such as the UN, and with the global sports community, specifically with international sport federations, to help to collaborate in their contribution towards the achievement of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. "We (Special Olympics) started with a social goal and then sport emerged as the means to right an injustice," said Shriver. Shriver and Lemke were joined by an impressive group from the worldwide sports community including Edwin Moses, multiple Olympic gold medal winner in the hurdles, NBA star and humanitarian Dikembe Mutumbo and legendary Olympic gold medalist in gymnastics and Special Olympics international board member Nadia Comaneci. The event showcased that Special Olympics transforms communities from closed to open, from intolerant to accepting and by using sport to accomplish this, has come to represent the goodness, power and true spirit of sport. But in the sporting background, Greece is currently engulfed in a financial crisis that could see the country run out of money in weeks if the EU and IMF withhold 12 billion euros in loans. As the Games entered its third day on Tuesday, a general strike started for two days. The General Confederation of Workers of Greece (GSEE) and the civil servants' umbrella federation Adedy, called for a 48-hour nationwide strike to coincide with a parliamentary debate and vote on the government's latest austerity package. A large demonstration was held on Tuesday which started at 10am at the Pedion to Areos Park in central Athens while on Wednesday another demonstration was scheduled to take place in downtown Klafthmonos Square. Accordingly, for the past two days, there was no public transport. No buses, trolley buses, trams or trains. Air traffic controllers decided on Saturday that they would also join the strike by staging two four- hour stoppages on both days which meant they would walk off the job from 8am to noon on Tuesday and on Wednesday from 6pm to 10pm. Since these stoppages will definitely disrupt dozens of flights, passengers were advised to check with their airlines. However, the strikes have not affected the Games' schedule and the allocated buses continue transferring the athletes and media from their hotels to the venues and back.
