Liverpool Lands Special Olympics GB 2021
The event will be the first time that an official Special Olympics has been held in Liverpool city centre, since Knowsley hosted the inaugural competition in 1978.
Venues will include Wavertree Athletics Village, Greenbank Sports Academy, and ACC Liverpool, while an opening and closing ceremony will take place at Sefton Park and Echo Arena Liverpool. More than 2,000 athletes will take part in a range of sports including football, athletics, gymnastics, swimming, and the motor activities training programme for those with multiple cognitive disabilities. The event, to be held in August, is considered to be “another huge sporting coup” for Liverpool as the city prepares to host the Netball World Cup in 2019 and the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in 2022. The economic benefit of hosting the National Games in Sheffield in 2017 was more than £3.2m.
Murton Mann, chairman of Special Olympics GB, said: “We expect in the region of 2,000 athletes and 500 voluntary coaches – supported by a further 500 volunteers and estimated 5,000 family members – to visit Liverpool in the summer of 2021 for our biggest national event which takes place every four years. “We are looking forward to the support of the people of Liverpool and businesses of the city at this very significant sporting event. We are sure that the great city of Liverpool will provide a very successful and hugely memorable event for our athletes, their families, coaches and volunteers.”
Mayor Joe Anderson added: “As a city we have a belief in the power of sport, physical activity and events to transform lives and to inspire people to fulfil their potential, regardless of the nature of their disability. “Liverpool will deliver an inspirational event that provides everyone involved with ‘the time of their life’ including athletes and their families, spectators, volunteers, officials, partners and everyone watching who can be inspired by these memorable moments.”
For more information on the Special Olympics visit: https://www.specialolympicsgb.org.uk/