GO FOR GOLD

Not one, not two but three gold medals

Wow, what an experience for Beryl Jarvis. Thanks to the help from many readers of MKM and elsewhere, her son Jeffrey was able to take part in the World Summer Special Olympics held in Shanghai from 2nd to 11th October 2007.

There were almost 7500 athletes from more than 160 countries taking part in 25 sports. Ever since Jeffrey was aware of Special Olympics about ten years ago and that the world games in 2007 would be in China where table tennis is their national sport, he made it his ambition to get there. In June 2006 he was over the moon to hear that he’d been chosen as just one of four table tennis players from Great Britain. Since then he’s been keeping fit, playing as much table tennis as possible and has filled four diaries with his fitness record.

TEAM SPIRIT

Team GB met at Heathrow on Tuesday 25 September and flew out to Shanghai the next day. They took part in a host town program where they are made welcome and experience the country they are in. Jeffrey had already been in Shanghai for four days before I arrived and the day after we landed a friend and I went to see the sights. We walked the Bund, went through the sightseeing tunnel and up to the top of the Pearl Tower. China was also celebrating China Day and literally millions of people were there as well. As we were going by a park, we saw athletes from the GB team so we flashed our ID tags at the security guys, who let us in. There we met up with the table tennis squad, including Jeffrey to discover that they had just been tea tasting.

On Tuesday 2nd October we were collected from our hotel to be taken to the opening ceremony. Well, what can I say? Even though our seats were right at the top of a full 70,000-seat stadium, the atmosphere and spectacle was electric. On every seat there was a bag of goodies and during the warm up we practiced banging the small drum, flashing the torches, holding up the silk square, waving banners and clapping with the clappers. We discovered that the audience was part of the display, with the sounds and colours not only being in the arena but also all around as well. There were fireworks, but we could not see them well from our seats.

SIGHT SEEING

We had one more free day and booked a day trip. The first stop was Suzhou, a small city on the out skirts of Shanghai, where we saw a Chinese garden with typical buildings, huge water lilies in the lakes and bonsai trees. Next we were taken to a Silk Mill and I’ll admit that this was my choice from the list of day trips and was, of course, where I wanted to visit. It was very geared up to the tourist trade and the visit started with a talk about the life cycle of the silk worm. Then we went on to see and touch silk worms eating mulberry leaves and I shouldn’t have been surprised that they felt silky. Next we passed along the production line where the silk was removed from the cocoons, the end found and seven ends twisted together to make a very fine thread.

At this mill they were making silk quilts by pulling and stretching the cocoons out to shape. We all had a go at this and then moved on to the saleroom. One couple with me invested in a quilt - a luxury I’m sure they will enjoy and most of the men bought silk shirts. I bought three small hanks of silk in red, blue and green and have already untwisted the blue and green and started to think about how I will use them. We then sat down to a Chinese meal with so many dishes to choose from that I lost count and this was followed by green tea.

WATERSIDE

Next we went on to ZhouZhuang water village. This was noisy, busy with the holiday, smelly in places but quite fascinating with tiny shops and stalls everywhere. The tour guide took us through alleyways and rough paths to go boating on the waterway. It was organised chaos, with five people employed to control the crowd, but once we were on the boat it was very peaceful. The boat was a bit like the punts at Cambridge and a lady in traditional Chinese dress sang as she steered the boat, rocking it from side to side. The same evening we were booked to see Chinese acrobats, so they rushed us back to Shanghai and directly to the theatre with no time to change for the evening! How do they twist and turn their bodies like that?

GO FOR IT

The next day the table tennis started and to get there we had a ten-minute walk to the subway. This was up the main Nanjing Road at 7.15 am and we saw people of all ages in the street doing Tai Chi, ballroom dancing, line dancing, playing badminton or just doing stretching exercises. They certainly seem to be a very healthy nation and I saw hardly any overweight Chinese. I did not see crisps and chocolate for sale everywhere! Next came a 20 minute subway ride and on one day this was so busy that when the doors opened people just fell out on to the platform, so we waited for the next one that day.

The subway ride took us to the hub where Special Olympics were running buses from and to several sports. Table tennis was a 35-minute ride away and the venue was absolutely fantastic with 20 tables. On the other hand, the toilets were another story to be avoided unless really needed! Ladies, we had to climb up three steps and squat over. They did flush and were being cleaned continuously, however paper should not be flushed away but put in a bin - Yuk. I did not see one disabled toilet and there were steps everywhere so I do hope Beijing will be better prepared for the Paralympics next year.

MADE TO MEASURE

In all Special Olympics competitions, they start by assessing the athlete’s ability so that they can compete against others with similar abilities within the sport. The first three days were spent doing this and Sunday was a free day before the main competition started. A friend and I decided to set off and see as much as we could of the other sports. Many of them were much further away than table tennis and, with buses going out from two hubs it took a bit of planning. We filled the day, leaving the hotel at 8.30 am and returning at 5.15 pm. During the day we found out that the subway was free to family supporters, so we went to Bocce (a type of short mat bowling), ten pin bowling, the Olympic Town, swimming and gymnastics. We learned that our toilets were not the worst and that we had the best choice of snacks.

MIXED DOUBLES

Monday was mixed doubles day and Emma Jones from Shropshire joined Jeffrey. They beat the United Arab Emirates, Bangladesh, Japan and Morocco without dropping a game to take a gold medal each. The next day was men’s doubles, Duncan Feltham from Bournemouth joined Jeffrey and this time he had more of a fight. In the first two matches they beat Spain and Venezuela, dropping a game each time and then a pair from Sweden beat them. The last match was against the Czech Republic. We knew they needed to win to be in the medals and at two games each and 4-7 down, we thought they’d lost it. However, we cheered and encouraged all we could through to a nail-biting finish of 11-9 and another gold medal for Jeffrey.

On Wednesday Jeffrey was on his own in the Singles. He beat players from China, Holland and Macao, China again without dropping a game to take a third Gold medal. Each time he received his medals he had his thumbs up and beamed; it was wonderful to see - in fact, he didn’t stop smiling the whole time he was in China. As a treat for all their efforts, we invited the team and coaches to our hotel for a meal. Between the four table tennis players from Great Britain they won 7 gold medals, 3 silver medals and two fourth places.

On Thursday it was time for the closing ceremony at an open-air stadium and fortunately it didn’t rain. It was another spectacle including a new bag of goodies so that we could join in. Jose Carreras performed as part of the evening and the fireworks were brilliant. Well, what would you expect from China?

BACK HOME

I flew back on the Saturday and Jeffrey returned on the Sunday. I just had time to catch up with jet lag at Heathrow and was there for the welcome home for Special Olympics. Jeffrey was so overcome with all the excitement that he cried. Please may I pass on special thanks to Anne and everyone who has taken an interest in Jeffrey and in Special Olympics. Your donations meant a great deal to us. I will try to take medals and or photos to the knitting exhibitions next year if you would like to see them. As you might have gathered by now, Special Olympics is not so much about winning as taking part. If you want to find out more, or brush up on the forthcoming World Games in Shanghai, please go to the Special Olympics web site.