During the World Games Special Olympics in Berlin, there is a category that is titled ‘Unified’. This entails that a non-special athlete is paired up with a special athlete. For Aruba, this is the case with our badminton team. This unified team consists of the athletes Orlando and Mildred and is coached by Ruben Croes. On Tuesday, this team played two games against ‘Chinese Taipei’. They managed to win one game while losing the other. These games formed a part of the divisioning process, during which the level of the teams is determined. The official games will commence in the coming few days.
For Orlando Arends, it is a completely new experience and he is pleased to be a part of these games. Orlando started training with Mildred six months ago and he states that communication is key. Mildred is also pleased to be able to represent Aruba in the Special Olympics. She likes Berlin and is ready for the official competition.
Ruben Croes stated that they placed the Aruban ‘Mixed Doubles’ team (a man and a woman) against a ‘Doubles” team (two men). This is usually not permitted and he has informed the organization in order to make sure that this does not occur during the official competition.
