Special Olympic athletes delayed, but arrive in Palm Springs

The Renaissance in Palm Springs was the first stop of a tightly-packed schedule for Special Olympic teams from Portugal and Bahrain, but the esteemed guests of honor were missing from their scheduled 11 o’clock brunch.

Around 1,500 Special Olympic athletes and coaches were delayed Tuesday night in Los Angeles because of flight delays and backed up check-in at Loyola Marymount University, including the entire team from Portugal. Teams were forced to sleep on the floor at the university and the Red Cross provided some cots, blankets, water, and food.

Bahrain officials said the team experienced travel issues of their own, with half the team not arriving on another plane till Tuesday evening. However, all were able to take the charter bus to Palm Springs and check into their hotel, unlike Portugal and many more countries.

“Well, first of all, we’d like to thank Palm Springs and everybody, all the volunteers here hosting the Bahrain team,” said Mohammed Alkhalifa, Vice President of Special Olympics for Bahrain. “We’re very excited to be here, we enjoy the weather. It’s very close to the weather back home. A little bit better than the weather back home. We’re excited.”

The bahraini athletes arrived to the brunch around noon and will be competing in various sports in the 2015 Special Olympic World Games, from aquatics, to equestrian, or even table tennis. But coaches believe the results during the Special Olympics are secondary to the experiences each athlete will share with one another.

“Well, the athletes, the Special Athletes, are looking forward to be doing well in the game to compete,” said Naser Kawaz, Bahrain Table Tennis Head Coach. “I mean, they’re friendly games. They don’t think, ‘we have to compete for winning or to get a gold medal.’ No. Okay, that may be a part of that, but the other part is for them to be our friends, to get to know them as friends who [are] participating in the same game.”

Portugal didn’t arrive in Palm Springs till after 2 p.m. on Wednesday and were so tired from the night before, decided to delay their trip up the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway by a few hours. Bahrain made the trip, as scheduled, in an event most of them have been looking forward to since leaving the Middle East.

“We’ve heard a lot about going up the mountain so we’re looking forward to that and hopefully meeting the Indian tribe in the area as well,” said Alkhalifa.

Now the hope is to get both teams from each country rested so they can enjoy the rest of the activities planned by the Palm Springs Chamber of Commerce and especially for the 2015 Special Olympics World Games on Saturday.