ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s team for the Special Olympics World Games Abu Dhabi 2019 arrived in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Monday and joined over 75,000 athletes from around the world.
The event is scheduled to take place from March 14 to 21 March in Abu Dhabi, the UAE Embassy in Islamabad tweeted on Monday.
It will be this year’s largest international sporting and humanitarian event.
“Over 7,500 athletes and 3,000 coaches, representing over 190 nations, will participate in what is the first ever Special Olympics World Games to be held in the Middle East and North Africa,” Special Olympics World Games Abu Dhabi 2019 said in a statement.
The event will also be the most unified games in the 50-year history of the Special Olympics movement, with the inclusion of people of determination with intellectual disabilities in every aspect of the event.
“Over 20,000 people have registered to volunteer at Special Olympics World Games Abu Dhabi 2019 and help stage what will be the biggest sports and humanitarian event of the year,” the statement read.
More than half (54 percent) of those who have registered to volunteer are female. The World Games will also feature a record breaking number of female athletes this year: more than 3,200.
