The golfers are used to not playing in the center of the Special Olympics World Games. The conditions at the facility in Bad Saarow are excellent. However, there is one big downer – regarding the athletes disco.
While the athletes of the Special Olympics can count on a lot of spectator support with their sports facilities in Berlin, the golfers have to do without loud applause. “You know that already. We were here at the national games last year. Golf is always a bit off somewhere,” says head coach Thomas Bruns, “it’s always the lot of golfers to be outside. But we’re here a really nice place.”
The preparation of the Special Olympics golfers on the driving range in Bad Saarow.
63 lanes for 200 participants
63 lanes are available for around 200 participants on the huge facility in Bad Saarow. There are a total of five competitions, which are called the Special Olympics level in golf, and place different tasks and demands on the players. A unified competition, in which an athlete with an intellectual disability plays alongside an athlete without an intellectual disability, is also on the program.
The game is played on the Faldo Course Berlin, which is classified as difficult due to its susceptibility to wind. There are also competitions on the Arnold-Palmer-Platz, a parkland course with wide fairways and large greens. “Here we have our peace and can play our game,” says Bruns. In addition, the German athletes have the advantage of already knowing the space conditions from the national Special Olympics last year.
Enough time for the other sports
And contact with the other athletes is not lost because the delegation has its hotel at Alexanderplatz. Since the golf competitions only started on Monday, there was enough time for the team to take a look at the other sports. In addition, the Special Olympics golf tournament ends on Thursday. “We only have four days of competition and therefore enough time to see other competitions as well. That balances it out quite well,” says Bruns.
Athlete pins “break the ice”
The remoteness also has the advantage that the German golf team grows together as a group because you spend the day together from morning to night, says Bruns. And that despite the fact that golf is an individual sport “where everyone plays for themselves.” In addition, the golfers are not afraid of contact and quickly create encounters with other athletes. “The pins are what establish contact with other athletes,” says Bruns of the small badges, which are also used as a kind of currency at the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The German golfer Paul Kögler (left) discusses the tactics with his trainer Elizabeth Höh.
A female golfer had already “exchanged her wristband within twenty minutes after training last Friday. The pins break the ice, you exchange ideas with each other”. Golfer Anna Mannheim is happy about the encounters with so many people from other countries and other languages. She herself has already played with a player from Canada and Korea: “I had a lot of fun.”
Disco at the Brandenburg Gate probably without the golf winners
But the competition just outside the capital still has a major disadvantage for some athletes. The award ceremony on Thursday will not take place until 7:15 p.m., so according to Bruns, the golf delegation will probably not be able to make it to the athletes’ disco in the evening in front of the Brandenburg Gate: “It’s a shame because we have a few people who love to dance and were really looking forward to it .”
The schedule of the Special Olympic World Games in Berlin at a glance.