Special Olympics European Unified Youth Basketball Tournament
▶Summary
Background The project was led by the SO Europe Foundation (SOEEF) and focused on Unified youth basketball to give the opportunity for young people with and without intellectual disabilities (ID) the opportunity to compete with and against each other on the international stage. The tournament was called the Special Olympics European Unified Youth Basketball Tournament and, after being postponed due to the Covid 19 pandemic in 2021, took in Sansepolcro (Italy) between 13th and 16th October 2022. Objectives 1. To develop youth Unified basketball programmes and coaching in all participating Special Olympics (SO) National Programmes2. To recruit and train new Unified Basketball Coaches to SO National Programmes.3. Enhancement of Healthy Lifestyles for the Special Olympics Athletes participating in the project.4. Current SO Basketball coaches will have increased capability to deliver Unified basketball training at grassroots level.5. Encouraging more girls to participate in SO Unified Basketball. Implementation The project was implemented by SOEEF with the the support from the Local Organising Committee (LOC) in SO Italy who executed the project on the ground in Sanselpocro with the support of SOEEF. Regular meetings where held during the 2 years of the project to ensure that all elements of the project were being covered. SOEEF also liaised with the other 15 National Programmes involved in the project around their particular activities to meet the grant objectives. Achievements 1. 2716 SO Athletes, Coaches and Volunteers participated over the lifetime of this project2. 1791 SO Athletes and Unified partners participated in the project3. 777 of these athletes had ID4. 686 female athletes and Unified partners participated in the project% - 38% if the total athletes who participated.5. 667 volunteers supported the project6. 247 SO Basketball Coaches were trained during the project. 141 of these were female7. 171 Healthy Athlete Screenings at the tournament in Italy