Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California.
From July 25th to August 2nd, Los Angeles, California will host the biggest sports and humanitarian event in the world in 2015, the Special Olympics World Summer Games.
The World Games will draw over 7,000 athletes and 3,000 coaches representing 177 countries, along with 30,000 volunteers and an anticipated 500,000 spectators. This will include 83 open water swimmers (48 men and 15 women as well as 10 United Teams from 33 different national delegations).
The 1.5 km open water swim will be conducted with the leadership of Bruckner Chase. The inaugural 1.5 km event at the 2011 World Games was nominated for the World Open Water Swimming Performance of the Year. But the 2015 version will be bigger, better, and more competitive and inclusive. The open water event in the Pacific Ocean in Long Beach will also offer a Unified Sports event. Under the Special Olympics Unified Sports program, participants who do not have disabilities compete alongside Special Olympics athletes.
Athletes around the world have been training diligently for the opportunity to represent their country. While the details of the event, its course or the logistics of the actual event have not been announced, the open water swimming-related events are as follows:
On July 25th, there will be a technical meeting for the coaches.
On July 26th, there will be divisioning 1500-meter event.
On July 28th at the new USC Aquatic Center, there will be a Pool Open Water swimming demonstration.
On July 31st at USC, there will be an open water swimming clinic.
The results from the 2011 Special Olympics World Summer Games 1.5 km race in Marathon, Greece were as follows:
Men (regardless of divisioning):
1. Andrew Smilley (Cayman Islands) 22:00.77
2. Dong Han Kim (Korea) 23:04.78
3. Jin Yong An (Korea) 23:26.69
4. Joshua Timbs (Australia) 23:47.80
5. Eduardo Rodriguez (Guatemala) 26:25.64
6. Wesley Klumper (Netherlands) 26:31.86
7. Matthias Attard (Malta) 27:15.33
8. Mattetyahu Oren (Israel) 27:20.80
9. Ricardo Aponte (Puerto Rico) 27:38.44
10. Guy Wartikowsky (Israel) 28:05.31
11. Javier Mejia (Honduras) 28:38.30
12. Dylan Coop (Australia) 28:52.24
13. Eric Marchetti (Italy) 29:37.43
14. Heriberto Torres (Puerto Rico) 29:43.69
15. Suk Il Hwang (South Korea) 20:11.03
16. Efrain Gomez (Puerto Rico) 30:47.12
17. Alex Vaca (Ecuador) 31:27.21
18. Gregory Black (Australia) 31:28.32
19. Mitchel Lopez (Curacao) 33:40.30
20. Samuel Silver (USA) 34:01.99
21. Alexandros Panagiotou (Greece) 39:00.85
22. Georgios Papadopoulos (Greece) 38:19.65
23. Ela Zohar (Israel) 38:41.77
24. Wensley Gysbertha (Curacao) 39:14.65
25. Michalis Kokkoris (Greece) 39:48.16
26. Zisis Dimoshakis (Greece) DNF
Women (regardless of divisioning):
1. Cornelia Fowler (South Africa) 25:02.64
2. Matthijs van Doorn (Netherlands) 26:07.48
3. Elisabeth Mansoor (Netherlands) 26:15.62
4. Nadja Tonnesen (Denmark) 26:09.56
5. Wenda Schippers (Netherlands) 28:30.60
6. Adriana Newton (Puerto Rico) 30:38.48
7. Flor Mendez (El Salvador) 32:05.23
8. Aisling Beacom (Ireland) 33:09.17
9. Opal Alon (Israel) 36:09.29
Copyright © 2015 by World Open Water Swimming Association