Victor G. Mimoni
Every four years since 1896, athletes from all over the world gather for the Olympic Games. Games for the deaf, the Deaflympics, were established in Paris in 1924. Paralympic Games for the physically disabled got started in England in 1948.
For those with intellectual disabilities, every two years there are the Special Olympics, a movement begun in Chicago by Anne McGlone Burke and Eunice Kennedy Shriver in 1968.
On Saturday, May 9 State Senator Frank Padavan helped open the Queens Special Olympic Games at Victory Field in Forest Park, welcoming more than 400 local athletes, who competed for medals in various track and field events and adaptive skill games.
Hundreds of volunteers, family members and cheering spectators were on hand for the day filled with sports competitions.
