Special Olympics World Games ? Winter 2009

On February 3rd a press conference took place in Milan to announce the Special Olympics World Games ? Winter 2009, scheduled to take place from the 7th to the 13th of February in Boise, Idaho (USA) and reserved to developmentally disabled athletes.
The sport activities, grouping those with similar abilities together, allow these young people to improve their quality of life, placing them in conditions of achieving the maximum level of independence possible. It is estimated that in the world there are two and a half million athletes with some disability who participate in these Special Olympic Games.
The ?Marist International Solidarity Foundation ? ONLUS? has participated in the initiative as a sponsor, adopting one of the Italian athletes who will take the risk of participating in the discipline of Nordic skiing, by assuming the transportation costs. ?Istituto San Leone Magno? in Rome, run by the Marist Brothers, and its Association of Ex-Alumni are also listed among the sponsors.
Present at the press conference were footballers Kaká and Roberta Armani, sponsors of the event, who wanted to personally wish the athletes ?good luck.?
Kaká stated: ?The Special Olympic Games are a great lesson for me, a great motivation. In as much as I can, I spend a day with the athletes and do things with them, because it is wonderful.? Roberta Armani, who for many years has supported this organization, declared that ?the determination of the athletes of the Special Olympic Games lights my way throughout life.?