WhatsUp

With a brilliant fireworks display in the Berlin summer sky and the extinguishing of the flame, the Special Olympics World Games Berlin 2023 came to a glorious close on 25 June 2023. It was the end of the Games, but by no means the finale in terms of what needs to be done for inclusion.

Australia's athletes have won 13 gold medals at the Special Olympics World Games in Germany.

The Games, the world's largest inclusive sporting event, finished in Berlin on Sunday night, with a spectacular closing ceremony at the Brandenburg Gate.

The event saw 7,000 athletes with intellectual disabilities from 190 different delegations competing across 26 sports.

The Australian team of 64 athletes competed in nine different sports: basketball, bocce, bowling, equestrian, golf, gymnastics, swimming, tennis and athletics. Brisbane golfer Natascha Tennent won gold in the 18-hole event. The 16-year-old told ABC her schedule before the Games involved training four times during the week plus during weekends and at competitions.

"It was just absolutely amazing to come over here, meet people from other countries, experience different cultures and come away from playing golf in a country where everything's completely different," Tennent said.

"The course itself was definitely quite difficult. The rough was sometimes up to my knees and sometimes even up to my chest. Not the easiest thing to hit out of when you got into it.

"But there were also a lot of bunkers. Luckily, I practised a lot of those."

The other members of the golf team

Anders Kobula, Amanda Patterson, Kane Leonard, Dylan Price and Matt Curley — all won medals on the final day of competition.

Australia's head of delegations, Susie Bennett, said that being in Germany with the athletes was a great experience.

"We have a team of young first-timers," she said.

"[For] about 90% of the athletes in this team, this is their first World Games. So their excitement is obviously contagious.

"I think the highlight for me was most of Team Australia medalled, but almost every athlete on the team has achieved a personal best.

"That's a highlight for us because to come this far and achieve their personal best on the world stage is fantastic."

Australia was also very successful in gymnastics, with the six members of the team finishing the competition with 21 medals, including six gold.

Level-four competitor Chris Bunton, from NSW, won gold medals on pommel, rings and high bar, plus silver in another four events including the ‘all around’.

Victorian level-two competitor Sophie Nichols won three medals including two gold on floor and all around, while Queenslander Elizabeth Hocart (level three) won a gold on floor and two bronze.

In equestrian, level B (I) Queensland riders Isabella Parisi and Karen Messmer took gold and silver respectively in the dressage competition.

Australia's first gold medal win went to Michael Wheatley and Robert Goodrem, who claimed victory in the men's doubles tenpin bowling.

Victorian athlete Chelsea Haag-Witherden won gold in shot-put, after a fifth place in javelin.

In total, Australia won 45 medals, including 13 gold, 16 silverand16bronze.

The host for the next Special Olympics World Games in 2027 will be decided in November.

Australia has announced it will bid to host the Games in Perth. If successful, it would be the first time the Games have been held in the southern hemisphere.