Disability Sport Wales held a reception for Special Olympics Wales at the Millennium Stadium last night to celebrate the homecoming of the Welsh Special Olympics athletes who represented Great Britain at the Special Olympics World Games held in Los Angeles 2015 this summer.

The seven athletes who competed in Los Angeles brought home a staggering 12 medals between them, which included three Gold Medals

The Special Olympics were the largest sporting event of the year with more than 6,500 athletes with intellectual disabilities competing from 165 nations in 25 Olympic type sports.

All welsh athletes who competed at the games in LA won a medal including Badminton player Lloyd Crawley (1 Gold, 2 Silvers), Ten pin bowler Kay Paytner (Bronze), Swimmer Matthew Allen (1 Gold, 1 Bronze) and four members of the kayaking team; Adrian Abbott (1 Silver, 1 bronze); James Savory (1 Silver), Stephen Beynon (2 Silvers) and Andrew Williams (1 Gold, 1 Silver).

Jeff Savory, Special Olympics Wales Chair said, “We could not be more proud of the 7 athletes for their outstanding achievements in the Special Olympics World Summer Games held in Los Angeles in July. All the hard work done in training for the 18 month build up to games was rewarded with bringing home 3 x Gold, 5 x Silver and 4 x Bronze medals, setting PB in most of the events entered, being great ambassadors for Wales. These athletes set a wonderful example of what can be achieved with hard work and dedication for the athletes hoping to be part of the Welsh Team for the upcoming Special Olympics National Summer Games to be held in Sheffield 2017.”

Deputy Minister, Culture and Sport said “To represent Team GB is an incredible honour in itself, but to bring home such an impressive medal haul is an enormous achievement of which we are all really proud. I hope the dedication and success of these athletes will inspire others to give sport a go and get hooked for life.”

Pippa Britton, Chair of Disability Sport Wales said, “We can be tremendously proud of the achievements of these athletes who represented Great Britain and Wales with such distinction at the Special Olympics in Los Angeles. The Special Olympics movement is a very important part of the disability sport offer in Wales and we are delighted to be working in partnership with them to drive forward programmes so that many more people can benefit from their activities just like these wonderful athletes who experienced the best of what sport has to offer."

Audio Interviews:

- Andy Heffer (Special Olympics GB Chair): http://bit.ly/AndyHefferSOGB 

- Jeff Savory (Special Olympics Wales Chair): http://bit.ly/JeffSavorySO

- Pippa Britton (Disability Sport Wales Chair): http://bit.ly/PippaBrittonSO

- Angela Frayling (Special Olympics Coach): http://bit.ly/AngelaFraylingSO

- Lloyd Crawley (Badminton): http://bit.ly/LloydCrawleySO

- Matthew Allen (Swimming): http://bit.ly/MatthewAllenSO

- James Savory (Kayaking): http://bit.ly/JamesSavorySO