The budget of the summer Special Olympics, which will take place in Athens in 2011, was reduced with 20%. This was announced by Yanna Despotopoulou, president of the Special Olympics Greek Committee. The main reason for this decision is the hard economic situation of the country and the fact that organizers do not want to additionally burden the state Treasury and the Greek tax payer. As Despotopoulou herself said, the expenses are reduced at the expense of more sponsorships and the initial budget, which was €86 million, is now €69 million.
Even though the opening and closing ceremonies will not be as rich as the 2004 Athens Olympics were, Despotopoulou assured that as before, Athens will give its best, in order to greet as warm as it can the thousands of sportspeople from all over the world and will wonderfully organize the games.
The chairman of the Special Olympics International Committee praised the Greek government for the support it gives to the games and expressed his trust in the Greek capital by stressing: “Athens is certainly the place where we need to go for the Special Olympics.”
The logo of the games “I participate” was announced on a press conference, as well as the symbol of Special Olympics Athens 2011, which shows the smiling Apollo sun – embodiment of light, hope and Greece itself.
The 2011 Special Olympics will take place between June 25 and July 4. 7500 sportsmen and women from 185 countries will be participating in 22 sports disciplines. The “Fire of Hope” will travel through Cyprus, Egypt and Turkey.
The International Special Olympics were found in 1968 by Eunice Kennedy Shriver, sister of President John Kennedy. Right now this is the biggest sports program in the world for people with disabilities. Participating in this program are 3.1 million sportspeople from 185 countries and the Special Olympics take place every two years.
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