Special Olympics Expands Global reach
Special Olympics has extended a partnership deal with Lionbridge Technologies which will enable translation of the organisation’s international website at www.specialolympics.org into Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish.
Lionbridge are a leading provider of translation, development and testing solutions, based in Massachusetts but employing 350 people in Ireland in Dun Laoghaire and Ballina.
“Lionbridge is pleased to play an integral part of helping Special Olympics achieve their goals to help athletes and supporters communicate more effectively,” said CEO Rory Cowan.
“A multilingual website for our global movement enables us to shine a brighter spotlight on the importance of respect, acceptance and inclusion of all people with intellectual disabilities,” said Mary Davis, Regional President and Managing Director of Special Olympics Europe.  “We are extremely thankful to Lionbridge for their continued support.”
Special Olympics is the largest sports organisation in the world for people with intellectual disabilities.  It provides year-round sports training, athletic competition and other related programs to nearly four million Special Olympics athletes in over 170 countries.  The national collection day takes place on April 27th and this year features a special Beat the Band initiative with the Eircom Music Hub.
Vodafone Extends Triathlon Support
Vodafone has expanded its association with Triathlon in Ireland through taking title sponsorship of the Vodafone Dublin City Triathlon to be held in the phoenix Park this coming August.
The event is managed by the Pranha Triathlon Club and is the largest city park triathlon in Europe.  This year’s race is expected to attract over 900 competitors across the standard Olympic distance race (1,500m swim, 40km bike and 10km run) and the ‘super sprint’ (600m swim, 16km cycle and 4km run), aimed at less experienced triathletes.  Entry is open to the public at www.dublincitytriathlon.com.
The partnership adds to Vodafone’s sponsorship of Triathlon Ireland, announced last year as the first major official sponsorship agreement secured by the umbrella body for the sport in Ireland.
Announcing the sponsorship Vodafone Ireland Business & Enterprise Director Anne O’Leary said “This it is an opportunity to help further promote an event grown by the Piranha Triathlon Club over the last nine years into one of the sport’s premier annual fixtures.”
“Given the participation numbers, the Dublin City Triathlon is an event which illustrates just how far the sport has come over the past decade.”
“As a company, we have already been very much committed to the sport through our sponsorship of Triathlon Ireland and this partnership with Dublin City Triathlon enables us to help further spread awareness and widen participation in what is already the fastest growing sport in Ireland.”
Kilometres for Kids launches 2012 programme
Crumlin Hospital for sick children has launched its Kilometres for Kids fundraising drive for this year.  Participants in a variety of road races and marathons, from the Spar Great Ireland Run on April 15th through the Flora Women’s Mini Marathon in June to the Dublin City Marathon on October, are invited to join the Kilometres for Kids team as their fundraising charity partner.
Mass participation events have shown real growth recently and registrations for the Flora Women’s Mini Marathon are already up by 77% on last year.
Stephen Roche and Eamon Coghlan were on hand in Dublin yesterday to launch the initiative and unveil details of a Kilometres for Kids cycling camp at Roche’s hotel in Spain and a team to run with Coghlan in the New York City Marathon.
Sport for Business Round Table takes place this morning
The first Sport for Business Members Round Table, on the relationship between alcohol and sport, takes place in Dublin this morning.  A group of 12 including representatives from the GAA, RTE, Diageo, and the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport among others will meet to cover areas including public health policy, the way in which alcohol is promoted through sport and how the two might be reconciled.
A major part of what Sport for Business hopes to achieve is the facilitation of discussion across different groups on areas that are of interest within sport, and which might benefit from the broader perspective that external business thinking can bring.  If you would like to raise a topic for future Members Round Table events, please contact Rob Hartnett via rob@sportsforbusiness2.ab6z.com.