Our Australian bocce team were on fire at the Special Olympics World Games in Berlin with all four players in possession of at least one medal.
The Team Captain Stuart Gorton (QLD), Georgiana Mouratidis (VIC), Andrew Robbins (VIC) and Vicki Robbins (VIC) secured the first medal of the Games when they won a bronze medal in the Team’s event.
Stuart raised the stakes when he won Australia’s first silver medal at the World Games in Berlin in the Men’s Singles event. He missed out on the gold medal by a mere one point!
On being awarded the silver medal Stuart said: “I am very proud to have won a silver medal and I did it in front of my team and my dad. It’s so exciting to be able to represent Australia against the rest of the world. This is my second World Games. When I last competed in LA in 2015 I won three medals. I just can’t remember what colour they were!”
It was a newsworthy achievement for our Aussie team and the other morning they did a live cross from Berlin to ABC News Australia to share their success.
The Bocce team end the games with 2 Silver and 2 Bronze.
Bocce Australia congratulate the Bocce team and all the Team Australia athletes competing at the Special Olympics World Games, Berlin.
The final medal tally for Team Australia is 15 gold, 21 silver, 23 bronze and a multitude of place ribbons for our 4-8 placed champions.
Every one of our 64 Aussie athletes will return to Australia with at least one medal, while the talented Chris Bunton (NSW), who is a World Games veteran, will return home with seven medals he won in artistic gymnastics – three gold and four silver.
More importantly, many Australian athletes will leave the Games having achieved a personal best performance in their chosen sport.
At Special Olympics competition, athletes are encouraged to strive for their best and experience the joy of participation, inclusion and friendship. A gold medal is a bonus, and that is one of the reasons we don’t keep records or a competitive medal tally.
But don’t be misled – Special Olympics athletes love the glory of winning gold!
Just ask Michael Wheatley who won gold in tenpin bowling at these World Games. Michael said, “I’m living the dream!”
We’ll reminisce with a full World Games wrap-up once everyone lands home and recovers from an event of a lifetime.
Scale of the World Games
The Special Olympics World Games in Berlin 2023 was the largest and most inclusive sporting event on the planet in 2023.
It was also the largest multi-sport event held in Germany since the Olympic Games in Munich in 1972.
Here’s a look at the numbers:
- 7,000 Special Olympics athletes
- 3,000 coaches and officials
- 190 delegations
- 26 sports (9 for Australia)
- 9 venues
- 18,000 volunteers
- 200 Host Towns welcomed athletes to Berlin
- 50,000 Opening Ceremony attendees
- 100,000 ticketed sports spectators
- 1,800 news media from 90 countries – a World Games record!
Credit: information in this article was sourced from Special Olympics Australia.