Page 6 July 30, 2015 EL SEGUNDO HERALD The Real Gifted Athletes Come to Town By Gregg McMullin Photos by Gregg McMullin The Special Olympics is the world’s largest sports organization for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, providing yearround training and competitions to more than 4.4 million athletes in 170 countries. There are Special Olympic Games each summer but the Special Olympics World Games are held every two years. This year the Special Olympic World Games were hosted by Los Angeles where some 170 countries were represented that brought over 7000 athletes to Southern California. It was the largest gathering of athletes to the Los Angeles Coliseum, where the opening ceremony took place, since the 1984 Summer Olympics took place. It is the first time since 1971 that the Los Angeles has hosted the Special Olympic World Games. The idea of Special Olympics began in the 1950s and early 1960s, when Eunice Kennedy Shriver saw how unjustly and unfairly people Hundreds of Classes Added! EL CAMINO COLLEGE Crenshaw at Manhattan Beach Boulevard • Torrance 1-866-ELCAMINO It’s Not Too Late! Stay Connected with El Camino College Earn a degree or certiicate with evening & online classes! www.elcamino.edu/eveningclasses Fall semester begins August 22 Apply & Register Today with intellectual disabilities were treated. She also saw that many children with intellectual disabilities didn’t even have a place to play. her vision began to take shape, as she held a summer day camp for young people with intellectual disabilities in her own backyard. The goal was to learn what these children could do in sports and other activities and not dwell on what they could not do. Her vision and drive for justice eventually grew into the Special Olympics movement. The first International Special Olympics Summer Games were held at Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois. Nearly a thousand athletes with intellectual disabilities from twenty-six states as well as Canada competed in track and field, swimming and floor hockey. In 1981 law enforcement around the country got involved in fundraising efforts for the Special Olympics. Wichita PD (Kansas) Police Chief Richard LaMunyon launched a Special Olympics awareness campaign that would become the Law Enforcement Torch Run for Special Olympics. The Torch Run has grown into the movement’s largest grassroots fundraiser, raising nearly $30 million each year and over $500 million since its beginning. This year’s games involved athletes from all over the world and competed in some twenty sporting events. Much like the Summer Olympics or Winter Olympics these gifted athletes marched into the Coliseum representing their respectful Dodgers Post All-Star Break By Adam Serrao The All-Star break was a couple of weeks ago now and if you break the season into two halves, then you can say that the Dodgers had a pretty successful first half. That’s not uncommon for the Dodgers nowadays though. The “Boys in Blue” seem to win the NL West every year now before a team like the St. Louis Cardinals kicks them out of the postseason and they’re forced to sit at home while watching their rivals from San Francisco throw parades. In order for this season to be a success, the Dodgers have to at least make it to the World Series. In order for that to happen, the second of the season, post All-Star break must go in the teams’ favor in very specific ways. At this year’s All-Star break, the Dodgers were 51-39 and sitting pretty in first place above the Giants in the National League West. It’s certainly not a bad start when you’re one of the top-five teams in the league. Unfortunately for the Dodgers, it’s not where you are in July, it’s where you are in October that counts. And that’s where L.A. wants to be; still playing well into the month of October. One thing that does make this year’s Dodgers team unique from the one’s from years past, however, is the amount of All-Stars that came from the team. For the first time since 1995, the Dodgers had five players to make the prestigious team. Zack Greinke started at pitcher for the National League while Clayton Kershaw, Adrian Gonzalez, Joc Pederson, and Yasmani Grandal were all given the nod as well. Those five join the likes of Mike Piazza, Hideo Nomo, Raul Mondesi, Jose Offerman, and Todd Worrell who all made the team in ‘95. If the Dodgers want to get anywhere in the month of October, it will have to be those five All-Stars that put the team on their collective backs and carry them to success. So far, Greinke and Kershaw have been doing it all for the Dodgers. While Ker- See Dodgers, page 13 See Gifted Athletes, page 14
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