{"id":2252,"date":"2010-06-04T15:00:40","date_gmt":"2010-06-04T15:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/?p=2252"},"modified":"2020-10-26T12:24:31","modified_gmt":"2020-10-26T12:24:31","slug":"special-olympics-namibia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/blog\/2010\/06\/04\/special-olympics-namibia\/","title":{"rendered":"Special Olympics Namibia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Could anything else other than football have brought this motley crew together? Desert Wolves bikers with a Police escort lead the cavalcade with an Olympic Torch burning brightly. Followed closely by four bright yellow DHL vehicles. The Ball held aloft on an open-top double-decker bus surrounded by the Special Olympics family, athletes, coaches and supporters. <\/em><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/span>The Torch and The Ball aboard The Bus<\/small><\/div>\n

The sound system on the bus blares out K’naan’s official World Cup anthem — on repeat and at the highest possible volume. We dance. We sing. We wave to people in their front yards. Children rush out of their homes, wave back enthusiastically, dance in the streets.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/span>The Special Olympics family and The Ball<\/small><\/div>\n
\"Desert<\/a><\/span>Desert Wolves gather at Katatura market<\/small><\/div>\n

A pause in the suburb of Katatura, the so-called “place where we don’t want to be” to where the black population was forcibly relocated from central Windhoek. A tough-looking Desert Wolves biker performs a doughnut on his bike — front wheel staying on the spot, rear wheel leaving a circle of rubber on the street and acrid smoke in the air. Leaflets advertising the Special Olympics event are scattered to the crowd.<\/p>\n

\"Burnt<\/a><\/span>Burnt rubber: a biker leaves his mark<\/small><\/div>\n
\"DHL<\/a><\/span>DHL vehicles follow the bus through Windhoek<\/small><\/div>\n

Then onwards to the Sam Nujoma Stadium where the event is happening. A crowd has already gathered and football is already underway. The Ball is thrown into an inflatable football arena where children are battling it out in four-a-side competition. Football fever, World Cup fever, is here for the day.<\/p>\n

\"Christian<\/a><\/span>Christian signs a giant replica of The Ball<\/small><\/div>\n

Around 2 o’clock, everyone migrates into the stadium itself for the main event of the day — a match between parliamentarians and ambassadors, both of whom, it seems, have been training hard for today’s game. Fitness levels are sky-high and play is fast and furious, diplomatic skills on full display. That’s the offical story.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/span>The trophy that diplomats and parliamentarians compete for<\/small><\/div>\n
\"Andrew<\/a><\/span>Andrew defects to the diplomats for the team photo<\/small><\/div>\n

In truth, the game is footballing hilarity of the highest order. Diplomats fall like flies to injuries sustained in bizarre ways, while parliamentarians are making ultimate use of the tag-substitute system, more used to running the corridors of power than the length of the football field.<\/p>\n

The game ends a 6-1 victory for the diplomats, with brave talk of a rematch from both sides. It is even proposed that future games should become regular fund-raising fixtures for Special Olympics.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/span>The trophy’s inscription and the fixture could be permanent<\/small><\/div>\n

We salute both teams for their courage in getting out there on the field for Special Olympics and for showing beyond any shadow of doubt that absolutely anyone can play the beautiful game.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Could anything else other than football have brought this motley crew together? Desert Wolves bikers with a Police escort lead the cavalcade with an Olympic Torch burning brightly. Followed closely by four bright yellow DHL vehicles. The Ball held aloft on an open-top double-decker bus surrounded by the Special Olympics family, athletes, coaches and supporters. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":2318,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[224,18,232],"tags":[182,38,80,183],"class_list":["post-2252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-namibia-countries","category-the-ball","category-the-journey","tag-namibia","tag-special-olympics","tag-unified-football","tag-windhoek"],"geo":{"latitude":-22.558904600000001750004230416379868984222412109375,"longitude":17.08248139999999892779669607989490032196044921875,"description":"Windhoek, Namibia"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2010\/06\/nam_DSC02797.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2252"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3274,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2252\/revisions\/3274"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}