The last time Uganda played at the Special Olympics World Winter Games, they emerged overall winners at the 2013 edition in South Korea and that’s what they have set their sights on as the 2017 games get underway in Austria.
The World’s largest sports and humanitarian event will run from March 14 – 25 2017 in the Austrian cities of Graz, Schladming, Ramsau and Stryia with over 3000 athletes expected from 110 nations.
Uganda is sending a unified floor hockey team that has 9 intellectually disabled players and 5 partners (not intellectually disabled)
The team captain Jimmy Muyomba said that they have trained well enough and are ready to defend their title, “Our coaches have given us enough and I know we are going to make it as we did it in Korea,” Muyomba said.
The Coach Wasswa Alex agrees with is captain about having the ability to win gold again, “every time I travel with the team we have won gold, we won in Japan and Korea and I think we are going to do the same, our target is to see that these children achieve,” Wasswa said.
The National Council of Sports General Secretary Nicholas Muramagi flagged off the team on behalf of Sports Minister Charles Bakkabulindi and said “This is one of the teams that you are sure will come back with medals, as council we are committed to helping serious associations that represent Uganda well every time they go out, this time we have provided only four air tickets but promise to do more next time.”