Special Olympics Isle of Man has now expanded the sports they can offer to youths and adults with an intellectual disability, courtesy of Special Olympics Austria and in particular their Sports Director Heinrich Olsen and Simon Senoner, President of the Floorball Federation of Vorarlberg.
Simon is also a coach in mainstream Floorball for Sport Club Gotzis.
Heinrich and Simon visited the Isle of Man last weekend and put Isle of Man Special Olympic Coaches and their athletes through their paces.
The training weekend ended with the first Special Olympics Floorball Competition to be held on Manx soil.
Fittingly enough it was a team lead by Heinrich who narrowly defeated a team lead by the Isle of Man Sports Director Adrian Mooney.
All the athletes who took part had a wonderful experience and made new friends.
Over the weekend the athletes took to this new sport with great enthusiasm and over the two days the improvement in the standard of play was very promising.
Ryan Aitken (defence) and Jason Fox (Goal stop) showed great determination and skill particularly during the completion on the Sunday afternoon.
It was a fantastic way to start the new sporting year and burn off some of the excess lbs gained over the Christmas period.
To cap the weekend all the equipment used was kindly donated to the Isle of Man Special Olympic team to help further develop the sport of Floorball.
Anyone interested in joining Special Olympics Isle of Man as an Athlete or Coach can contact them on 853850 or email enquiries@specialolympicsiom.org.
Photo - Special Olympics Isle of Man Floorball Athletes, Coaches and representatives from Special Olympics Austria.
