Special Olympians Welcome

Wednesday 30 November 2005

• Welcome to you all to Christchurch and these very special Olympics.
• Welcome to those taking part and the many, many people here to help support you in doing so.
• Very special welcome to the teams from here, Australia, China, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.
• Thank you to all the pupils from the following primary schools:
  Marshland, Parkview, Mairehau, Redcliffs, Mount Pleasant and Woolston. What a fine lot of flag wavers you are.
• We have, at last count, over 1000 athletes taking part in 11 sports. I'm told that special Olympians have a lesson for us all in their attitude toward all this. That is, they tend to find that the "joy is in the journey" not just the destination. It's a lesson we could all learn from.

Welcome to Christchurch and some big fun for all of us.