The University of Western Ontario is putting its stamp on the 2010 Special Olympics Canada Summer Games held in London July 11-17 as host of several events and home of the Athletes’ Village.
Opening and closing ceremonies will be held in TD Waterhouse Stadium, and the Western Student Recreation Centre and the Huron Flats fields will be used for events. The Special Olympics has Western roots.
Frank Hayden, who developed the concept, was a professor at the university in the 1960s and 1970s, when his research focused on testing modes of physical fitness for individuals with an intellectual disability. This research drew attention from Eunice Kennedy Shriver in Washington, D.C. and became the basis for the establishment of the games.
Western alumna Deborah Bright (BA’90, MA’92) is the president and CEO of Special Olympics Canada.
Many members of the Western community are on the organizing committee, including co-chairs Dianne Cunningham, Director of the Lawrence National Centre for Policy & Management, and Darwin Semotiuk, professor in the School of Kinesiology, who share the honour with London Police Chief Murray Faulkner.
Bob Furlong, Executive Director of the Fowler Kennedy Sport Medicine Clinic, will be director of medical services for the games, and Ruth Harland, Manager of Conference Services for Western’s Hospitality Services, is co-director of operations.
The 2010 Special Olympics Canada Summer Games will serve as a qualifier for the 2011 Special Olympics World Summer Games to be held in Athens, Greece. Learn more at https://london2010.ca/.
