Quite a powerful story,
link
By Sairah Irshad Khan
“It is an honour to have the Pakistanis as our guests.” “We are privileged to have been given the opportunity to host Pakistan.” “Friends for life…” When was the last time Pakistanis travelling to the west - and that too en masse - heard such accolades? Was there ever a time when an entire town, 14000 strong - man, women and child alike - wept to see its Pakistani guests leave? And how often is it that those usually existing on the fringe of life - the intellectually and physically challenged - are transformed into heroes and stars?
That was the story of the Special Olympics World Games 2003.
That, and so many more…
Almost like an epiphany, the creeping realisation as the games progressed that 17-year-old Tahir Ahmed, a cherubic, diminutive Downs Syndrome athlete, ostensibly mute, low-functioning and painfully shy, could not merely speak, but sing. The 'limited ability' tag went out the window as this high achiever won not just three medals, but also the hearts of everyone who met him, becoming in the process the SOP's poster boy.
There is the almost surreal saga of the athlete from Uganda who as a three-year-old child saw his father murder his mother, fled to the jungle and was adopted by a group of African green monkeys, with whom he lived for three years. John Ssaybunnya knew no other way of life but that of the primates, until he was discovered by a local villager and rehabilitated by members of an African charitable foundation. The subject of extensive scientific research, now a wiry, sprightly football player, John proudly represented his country at the 2003 games.
And there was the Irish athlete, Eithne Gormley, who at age 54 and in her first World Games, notched up five gold medals in all the rhythmic gymnastic events she participated in.
For Pakistan's 60 athletes, it was a tale of triumph from start to finish, manifest most tangibly in the 89 medals - 40 of them gold - they brought home.