Civic Reception Held To Honour Wicklow Special Olympics World Summer Games Athletes

Wicklow athletes who represented Ireland at the 2019 Special Olympics World Summer Games earlier this year were honoured recently with a Civic Reception hosted by Wicklow County Council.

In March 91 athletes competed with Team Ireland at the 2019 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. They returned to a hero’s welcome with an outstanding 86 medals (30 Gold, 29 Silver and 27 Bronze) along with 46 placed finishes and many personal bests.

Wicklow was represented by local athletes Aisling Beacom and Rukki Atiyota from the Blue Dolphins Special Olympics Club in Wicklow Town and Padraig Reilly from KARE Blessington.

Aisling competed in swimming and won Gold in the 800m Freestyle, Bronze in the 1500m Open Water Swimming and came 4^th in the freestyle relay. Rukki was on the basketball team and was placed 4^th overall. Padraig competed in bowling and was placed 8^th in the Singles, 6^th in the Doubles and 4^th in the team competition.