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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Vine

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Speaker 1: from Newstalk ZB.

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Speaker 2: The Special Olympics National Summer Games kicked off in christ

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Speaker 2: Church on Wednesday. They run through until tomorrow. Over twelve

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Speaker 2: hundred athletes, over five hundred coaches and eight hundred volunteers.

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Speaker 2: The biggest sports event this year in christ Church. It's

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Speaker 2: also the first ever event to take place at the

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Speaker 2: brand new Patakyori Sports Center in christ Church. So it's

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Speaker 2: been quite a few days. CEO of Special Olympics New

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Speaker 2: Zealand is Franz Scoli who joins us now Gady fran Howe.

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Speaker 2: Has the week been, Oh.

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Speaker 3: It has been at buzz here. I tell you there

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Speaker 3: is a lot going on. We've got a lot of

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Speaker 3: support and it's just a great vibe.

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Speaker 2: Tell us about how far and wide the athletes have

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Speaker 2: come from to come to christ Church for this event.

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Speaker 3: Yes, so as far as the Bay of Violence and

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Speaker 3: all the way down in the Cargo. So we've got

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Speaker 3: forty two clubs participating here at the National Summer Game.

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Speaker 2: And across a variety of different sports. Frank, can you

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Speaker 2: give us an insight into some of the sports that

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Speaker 2: these athletes are competing.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. Absolutely. Our most popular sport is tenpin bowling, followed

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Speaker 3: by swimming and then one of our team sports basketball,

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Speaker 3: but we also do indoor bowls, botchy, equestrian golf, football,

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Speaker 3: and athletics.

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Speaker 2: This feels like quite a big logistical exercise for you

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Speaker 2: and your team. How much planning goes into pulling an

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Speaker 2: event like this together.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so we don't have a very big team, but

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Speaker 3: it's been about eighteen months worth of planning and we've

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Speaker 3: had to be really flexible in terms of partakyr day building,

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Speaker 3: getting in to do some testing for our swimming and

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Speaker 3: basketball that's being held here, but also our Healthy Athletes program.

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Speaker 3: So huge acknowledgment to the National Summer Games Events team,

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Speaker 3: but also our clubs and our volunteers that have allowed

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Speaker 3: us to get to where we are today.

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Speaker 2: Already is brand new in christ which isn't it the

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Speaker 2: new Sports center which has an aquatic part of it,

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Speaker 2: but also you know courts et cetera. Am I right

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Speaker 2: in saying friend that this is the first event that

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Speaker 2: has used part of Chiote.

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Speaker 3: We are the first event and our athletes have absolutely

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Speaker 3: loved it. They love the fact that they are the

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Speaker 3: first swimmers or Basketball Live participating at part of Ciorte.

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Speaker 2: What is it like there? I had a chance to

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Speaker 2: walk through earlier in the year and it was sort

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Speaker 2: of getting its finishing touches. I was amazed by. What's

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Speaker 2: it been like, you know, in a sense of actually

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Speaker 2: being functional for an event like this.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's actually really, really, really well done. So we've

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Speaker 3: worked really closely with christ Up City Council and it's

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Speaker 3: just a hub of activity. The way in which they've

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Speaker 3: laid it out, the entrances, the exits, how to get

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Speaker 3: from different flaws to viewing platforms, it's.

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Speaker 2: Just phenomenal, amazing.

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Speaker 3: Now.

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Speaker 2: I saw some really cool social media of your opening

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Speaker 2: ceremony at Wolfbrook Arena starring the absolutely magnificent Jason Gunn

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Speaker 2: the other night. What was that like?

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Speaker 3: Yeah? Five thousand people into that arena. Five thousand, yes,

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Speaker 3: And I tell you what, our athletes absolutely loved it.

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Speaker 3: So we had yeah, as I said, five thousand people

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Speaker 3: in the arena. We had some dancing, we had some singing.

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Speaker 3: We had obviously our athletes marching out representing their clubs. Yes,

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Speaker 3: we had Jason Gunn, and we also had our amazing

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Speaker 3: nc our athlete from Canterbury. Sorry, Andrew Oswyn, amazing stuff.

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Speaker 2: Now you mentioned before the Healthy Athletes program. I want

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Speaker 2: to get a bit of more information on this. What

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Speaker 2: does that involve.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so Special Olympics really tries to wrap around a

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Speaker 3: holder viewpoints. So we want to look after our house.

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Speaker 3: So essentially what we're utilizing is we're bringing house to

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Speaker 3: our athletes. So we've got six feet so you can

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Speaker 3: and come in and get your feet checked and ensure

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Speaker 3: you've got the right shoes and the right ethodics and

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Speaker 3: those sorts of things. We've also got our smiles activation,

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Speaker 3: so that's a dentists that are checking out the teeth.

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Speaker 3: We've got our hearing. We've also got our optometry so

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Speaker 3: all of our eyes. And the amazing partners that we

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Speaker 3: have actually gift to our athletes are any prescription glasses

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Speaker 3: so just general were, but also any competition glasswere as well.

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Speaker 3: And then our last one is actually strong lines, which

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Speaker 3: is really important. And Scott Barrett's ad an amazing speech

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Speaker 3: at our opening ceremony and what really resonated around that

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Speaker 3: was he talked about nervous pressure and energy that he

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Speaker 3: feels before the game and heard so many of our

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Speaker 3: Accetes be like, just remember what Scott said, and so

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Speaker 3: that builds really nicely into that strong Lindes program that

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Speaker 3: we run as well.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely standing the Healthy Athletes program is that driven by

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Speaker 2: the fact that that typically, you know, some athletes with

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Speaker 2: intellectual disabilities don't complain if something's not quite right with

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Speaker 2: their teeth or their hearing all their side, or they

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Speaker 2: don't get regular checks.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I would change the sum to the majority. And

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Speaker 3: so that's why it's incredibly important to ensure that they

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Speaker 3: get the screening so then get referral so when they

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Speaker 3: go back home then they can follow up and get

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Speaker 3: the necessary medical treatment that they need.

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Speaker 2: So as you're sitting or standing, chairing clapping watching these athletes, friend,

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Speaker 2: it must be I don't know, it just must be

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Speaker 2: incredibly heartwarming for you. Is it to watch this all

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Speaker 2: happen and you know, to have to beat the head

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Speaker 2: of an organization that makes something like this come together

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Speaker 2: in such impressive fashion.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I was in tears this morning, and so I

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Speaker 3: had a lot of athletes giving me hugs and high

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Speaker 3: fives and telling me it was okay, and I had

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Speaker 3: to explain to them that it was happy tears We've

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Speaker 3: got an employee with special Olympics Mark, whose son Adam

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Speaker 3: actually participates in there, and we are following his story

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Speaker 3: at the moment. But to summit up, Adams just started swimming.

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Speaker 3: And when Adam first started swimming, Mark his dad needed

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Speaker 3: to get into the pool with him to help build

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Speaker 3: the confidence. He turned around before to Mark and said, Dad,

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Speaker 3: I've bought this. As he walked through the marshaling area

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Speaker 3: and out onto the swimming platform to race. It was

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Speaker 3: just amazing And it's that confidence build that we just

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Speaker 3: cannot take for granted, and it's just one of the

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Speaker 3: key elements that sports can bring to anybody.

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Speaker 2: And I'm not surprised for a few misty eyes, for

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Speaker 2: prickly eyes. That's when it happened, and just one example

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Speaker 2: of it. Fran And I know it's a busy time,

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Speaker 2: as I've said, across the weekend, you wrap up on Sunday. Look,

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Speaker 2: it's just an amazing event and I'm so pleased we've

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Speaker 2: had the chance to chat to you about it. All

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Speaker 2: the best for the rest of the weekend, and congrats

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Speaker 2: to you and your team for pulling this together.

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Speaker 3: Oh, thank you so much, No, thank.

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Speaker 2: You, friend, Franz Scoli.

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Speaker 3: There.

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Speaker 2: She is the CEO of Special Olympics New Zealand. A

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Speaker 2: quite extraordinary event going on in christ Church, the Special

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Speaker 2: Olympics National Summer Games.

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