All-star lineup backs Special Olympics

A powerful lineup of 18 social leaders, including Yao Ming, Pan Shiyi, Yang Lan and Liu Heung Shing swore a common oath to make China a more inclusive country for people with intellectual disabilities. They made the commitment when joining a senior advisory council established by the international organization of the Special Olympics in its East Asia section, in Beijing on Sunday.

The influential members in business, sports and culture seek to ratchet up the Special Olympics' performance in strategy development, funding solicitation and sports excellence from China to South Korea and Mongolia where the organization's six East Asia offices are distributed. Former Chinese foreign minister Li Zhaoxing acts as the council's honorary chairman.

The consultative body will raise public awareness to show that the Special Olympics is about more than sports. It also promotes social progress, says Mary Gu, Special Olympics East Asia's regional president.

Sports is one major channel through which the intellectually disabled can demonstrate their capacities. Furthermore, Gu says, the organization hopes that by making a network of people from different walks of life, these with intellectual disabilities can be accepted by society, attaining equal education and medical services and finding jobs.

Figures from the World Health Organization show that people with intellectual disabilities account for about 3 percent of the global population, totally 200 million.

Eunice Kennedy Shriver (1921-2009), who grew up with her intellectually disabled sister Rosemary, found that this group of people suffered unjust treatment. She took action by launching the first Special Olympics World Summer Games and the Special Olympics in the United States in 1968.

The organization now has 4.2 million registered athletes among which 1.18 million come from East Asia. Through last year, it has held 23 world games alternatively in summer and winter throughout the world.

Tam Wai-yip, Special Olympics Hong Kong's athlete director and a council member, views the organization as a big, warm family that provides him many opportunities for development and encourages him to strive for a victory. He participated in two Special Olympics World Summer Games, one in North Carolina in 1999 and another in Ireland in 2003.

"I won several swimming medals at the Special Olympics World Games," he says.

The project has extended Tam's reach: He learned to coach teenage Special Olympics athletes, assisted to organize major activities and he also became the sports ambassador at a school, to name a few achievements.

"I hope my progress can motivate fellow athletes to believe in themselves, to unleash more potential and to live a fabulous life," he says.

The recent decade has witnessed, among dramatic social changes, more attention being paid to and measures being taken to better the lives of China's underprivileged community, including people with intellectual disabilities, notes Shi Derong, chief investment officer of CDB Root-Well Funds and newly selected chairman of the senior advisory council.

"As council members, we are here not only to give advice and to donate money. We are also here to widely spread inclusion, respect and dignity, so that the Special Olympics movement can achieve sustainability in China and East Asia as a whole," he says.

Timothy P. Shriver, chairman of Special Olympics International and son of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, praises the council's funding in Beijing. He says the vision of the Special Olympics movement is more universal - in which human differences are not taken as reasons to exclude but are instead seen as the reflection of human diversity and a positive component to build society.

"To achieve that vision, China must be the largest and most successful country in the Special Olympics movement," he says.

The senior advisory council issues the Special Olympics' version of the Chinese dream, he says.

"It is a call to action, an invitation to the young people all over the country, to the government and to other communities all coming together. It is to encourage volunteerism, a healthy lifestyle and inclusive schools for all people, and to import tolerance and acceptance of differences."

linqi@chinadaily.com.cn