Sunday, August 22, 2010

The Spirit of the Special Olympics - Aukake Classic Soccer

Only a few minutes remained in the final A-division championship Gold Medal game at today's Aukake Classic. Kona (in green) is ahead of Hilo (in red) by 2 points.

Here a key Kona player is seen helping his teammate into position.
IMG_4122a

He leaves to take his own position.
IMG_4123a


A little while later the Kona player gets knocked to the ground. What happens after that shouldn't have surprised me after years of witnessing Special Olympics athletes and their honest, genuine caring nature, yet it still managed to bring me to tears.
IMG_4124a

IMG_4125a

IMG_4126a

IMG_4127a

IMG_4129a

IMG_4130a

IMG_4131a

Hilo lost 9 to 7, but I think that you know as well as I do that winning is not what really matters.
IMG_4164a

9 comments:

Les said...

oooooohhhh da cuuuute!! good thing I wasn't there, I'd probably start crying too...

jalna said...

Les, I hid behind my camera. If you were there we would've been bawling.

Betty Townsend said...

Awesome, Jalna...I'm bawling now. I love them comforting each other. How awesome is that!!!

jalna said...

It is awesome Betty, and it's a typical reaction for the athletes to be so caring.

Randism said...

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

no laugh! one dust wen in my eye!!!

jalna said...

Hahahahah, you so funny Rand!

SW said...

aww.. such a nice and touching sequence of shots. These are truly GREAT athletes. *sniff* *sniff*

Erick said...

Great post! This is what I really love about Special Olympics. The compassion they have for each other. When they are together no one is handicapped, no one is different, they are all the same.

jalna said...

They are awesome, Shun Wah.

Erick, so true.