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The president of the international movement Special Olympics – Timothy Shriver – Kennedy called the program of the Greek organizational committee of Athens 2011a role model for the rest of the countries. In an announcement which he made to the organizational committee of Special Olympics 500 days before the start of the Games, Kennedy expressed his great gratitude towards the Greek government for the significance it gives to the organization and the support of the international sports event in such a difficult from an economic point of view moment. In his announcement Kennedy showed his satisfaction from the country and the hard work of the Greek government in order for the Special Olympics to turn into a reality.

Special Olympics will be held on June 25^th until July 4^th 2011 in Athens and the number of the applications filed for participation exceeded the expectations of the sponsors and reached the record number of 10 000… According to the data provided by the organizational committee the competitors who will take part in the international sports event are over 7000 and the number of the coaches is 2000. Along with the category “young athletes”, the companions and the medical staff, the number of the participants reaches 10 000. It is expected that the number of referees to be 3000 and the families of the competitors about 40 000. We should also add to this number another 25 000 volunteer assistants and about 3000 journalists. The countries which declared they will take part are 185 and the most competitors will come from South Africa – 90, India – 181, Venezuela – 84, USA – 317, Russia – 225. In regards to the size of the event in his announcement made to the Athens committee of 2011 Kennedy underlines that currently a lot has been achieved, however more has to be done…