Special Olympics: ‘We are absolutely buzzing, we have a very happy birthday girl here’

Deirdre O’Callaghan celebrated her birthday in style on Thursday, picking up a silver medal in kayaking at the Special Olympics World Games in Berlin.

Deirdre, who turned 42, was serenaded by her team-mates and local schoolchildren and presented with a cake after securing the accolade for the 200-metre event at Grünau.

“We are absolutely buzzing, we have a very happy birthday girl here,” said Deirdre’s sister-in-law, Michelle O’Callaghan, who travelled over to the German capital with eight other family members from north Dublin.

“It was just magical down on the bank of the river. Some of the kids from the local school were actually coming up asking for her autograph and everything. She signed a couple of autographs and she’s tired from all the signing now.”

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Special Olympics: ‘We are absolutely buzzing, we have a very happy birthday girl here’

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Deirdre, who also picked up a silver medal at the World Games in Dublin 20 years ago, said she was “very happy” with her most recent win.

“It was very nerve-racking because when it came to the end we thought she [Deirdre] might have got the gold; it can be hard to tell from where the spectators are standing,” added Ms O’Callaghan.

“We were kind of waiting on a nervous edge but we were just absolutely delighted for her because to get a silver on her birthday is so magical. It adds to the celebration for her today ... We’ll have a bit of a party for her later in Berlin and then drop her back.”

Over at Berlin Olympic Park’s equestrian centre, athlete Declan Foley (16), from Co Tipperary, was surprised by his school principal, Siobhán Keyes Ryan, from Cashel Scoil Aonghusa, who travelled over from Ireland this morning.

“Everybody back in school is so proud of Declan, we’re all delighted,” she said. “We all wanted to come but I was the lucky one that got to go so it was a big surprise, as I told Declan earlier on that I couldn’t make it, that we would follow him on the phones.”

Also taking to the equestrian track to represent Team Ireland was Gemma Heire (23), from Co Kilkenny, who said her Olympics experience has been “unbelievable so far”.

“We’re really proud of her,” said Gemma’s father, Joseph. “It’s the culmination of 15 years of trying to get to the World Games; she started competing when she was eight, at swimming initially, but now she does swimming, kayaking, athletics and equestrian, so she’s been improving her chances of qualifying as the years go by.”

Mary Davis, chief executive of Special Olympics International, said she had wanted the games to come to Germany for a number of years in order to raise the profile of the organisation in Europe.

“Germany is such a powerful and important country that a lot of European countries ... we look up to Germans,” she said.

“So I think it’s been great. The other thing about Germany is it tore down its own walls of discrimination and exclusion and created more unity and more inclusion, and that’s what we’re all about.”

Ms Davis said while she would love to see the World Games return to Ireland, it would be a “challenge” to raise the funding, with this year’s competition costing about €130 million.

“So that’s a huge amount of money for a small country to put together and to raise. The government here put in an awful lot, I think they gave €70 million initially, between the federal government and Berlin itself, and then they had to go back to the well again to the government, and again, so three times they went back to get additional funds to be able to stage the games.”