The athletes are the focus of the Special Olympics World Winter Games but there is also much to be learned from the story of those who have volunteered from around the world to enable the games to happen.
1,500 athletes, 2,000 volunteers and both groups drawn from 100 countries and with as many stories behind their why.
Team Ireland has over 40 that have flown out to Turin and Sestriere to support the hopes and dreams of the ski and floorball teams.
They have each raised a minimum of €3,000 for the organisation through a mix of quiz nights and cake sales, sponsored runs and sales of work, polar plunges and padel tournaments.
Their imagination is bettered only by the enthusiasm they bring to every task.
The team is marshalled on the ground by Karen Treacy and Leonie Vesey and they assigned the different jobs from stewarding the hospitality area to making sure that families arrived at the right spot and the right time to see their athletes, to handling media requests and whatever else might arise.
In Italy that tends to be more than perhaps in Switzerland where the next Winter Games are to be held. But through it all the smiles remain warm and the joy shines through.
Mary is doing her sixth games, she says it will be her last but she might have said that before.
There is youth and the exuberance of a first time as well. Two of the volunteers, completely unrelated and unaware of the coincidence, celebrated their 21st birthdays’s out here on Sunday. Cakes were procured, songs were sung, lifetime friendships were formed with people that had never met.
Katherine’s day job back home is on the sponsorship team in Ireland for KPMG. Chasing news of how her ambassador Rachael Blackmore was getting on at Cheltenham had to wait until the right badges had been given to the right people heading out onto the slopes today.
She chose to come under her own steam with time support from her employer because the motivation of doing something good can never be underestimated
Three employees have come out from eir who are celebrating 40 years of support for Special Olympics.
What is better still is that the 40 out here are backed up by 40 more and then again in every Special Olympics club and community in Ireland.
The duty of care that goes into every moment could never be repaid in terms of a salary.
The ledger of time spent versus reward gained in this world owes nothing to euro’s, pounds or dollars.
It is something worth far more.
It is the ability to play a small part in making a big dream come true for an athlete that has perhaps overcome more than most of us could ever imagine to get here.
You cannot beat that.
SPORT FOR BUSINESS PERSPECTIVE
It is a privilege to be in Italy this week with Team Ireland and to see at first hand the impact that sport has on the lives of those who some would say do not deserve this chance. If ever the opportunity arises to volunteer at a games, perhaps at next year’s Ireland Games in July 2026, seize it with both hands.
WHAT’S UP NEXT?
All the irish athletes have been in action today and the games will continue until Saturday.
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