The Road to Shanghai
Dr. Mark L. Wagner
From 15-18 October 2006, the Shanghai Invitational Games were held. These Games served as the preliminary event leading to the 2007 Special Olympics World Summer Games to be held in Shanghai, China, from 2-11 October 2007. During the Games a Healthy Athletes screening program was held at the Chinese Disabled Persons' Federation Rehabilitation Center located in the Pu Dong area of Shanghai. Among the Global Advisors attending were Drs. Paul Berman, Beth Lannon, Patrick Nunan and Steve Perlman, and Alice Lenihan and James Gleason. They were accompanied by Special Olympics staff Raynell Redd, Martin Wisor, Aldis Berzins and me. Lending his technical expertise was Dr. Stanley Shepherd, Chairman of Health One Global.
The purpose of this event was to conduct a trial run of Healthy Athletes screening in the same venues and under conditions similar to those expected during the 2007 World Games. Screening areas included, Fit Feet, FUNfitness, Healthy Hearing, Health Promotion, Opening Eyes and Special Smiles. The Games Steering Committee provided local leadership with Dr. Cai Wei, Dr. Song Yaijun and Mrs. Lu Quiofan. These able leaders assembled a Healthy Athletes Advisory Committee made up of Shanghai Clinical Directors who had previously attended train-the-trainer events sponsored by Special Olympics. These training programs began in Dublin, Ireland, during the 2003 World Games, and were also conducted during the 2005 World Games in Nagano, Japan; additional training was done at Wenzhou Medical College, a Special Olympics Regional Collaborating Center in Wenzhou, China. This group did the planning and implementation of the screening and trained all of the local clinical volunteers.
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