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Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) addresses those who assembled to hear the announcement of Ames, Iowa as the site for the first-ever U.S. National Games, which will take place in 2006. Joining Sen. Harkin on stage, from left, are Ames Mayor Ted Tedesco; Dr. Gregory Geoffroy, President of Iowa State University; Lieutenant Governor Sally Pederson; Timothy P. Shriver, Chairman, Special Olympics; and Jenna Schrack, Special Olympics Iowa Global Messenger. |
Special Olympics athletes and supporters of the movement joined Special Olympics Chairman Timothy P. Shriver to announce the selection of Ames, Iowa, as the site for the 2006 Special Olympics U.S. National Summer Games, the first-ever U.S. national Games. The announcement, made on 14 July at Iowa State University, brought together state and local officials, including Senator Tom Harkin, Lieutenant Governor Sally Pederson, Ames Mayor Ted Tedesco and Dr. Gregory Geoffroy, President of Iowa State University.
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Above, Jack Trice Stadium on the campus of Iowa State University seats 45,814 for football and is home to the Cyclones. |
About Ames, site of the 2006
U.S. National Games:
- One of the 20 best places in America to live and work by BestJobsUSA.com (2002)
- The 20th best place to live in America by Men's Journal magazine (2002).
- The second most livable small city in the nation by the New Rating Guide to Life in America's Small Cities.
- 30 miles north of Des Moines, Iowa's state capital and largest population center.
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“As a movement, we have embraced athlete leadership and, over the past several years, the National Games have been a focus of athlete leaders in the United States,” said Shriver. “It is a tribute to them that we stand here to announce that the 2006 National Summer Games will be held in Ames, Iowa. The great news is that more than 3,000 athletes will come to Ames. They will come to celebrate the singularly important human idea that everybody counts.”
"A lot of people have worked very hard to make this special dream become a reality," said Senator Harkin (Dem.-Iowa). "Even though we’ve passed a lot of legislation, we still have a ways to go. We have said ‘no’ to determination by others and 'yes' to determination by the individual about how they're going to live their lives." In 1990 Senator Harkin authored the Americans with Disabilities Act, landmark legislation that ensures the civil rights of more than 54 million Americans with mental and physical disabilities.
The 2006 Special Olympics U.S. National Summer Games, scheduled for 3-8 July, are expected to bring 3,000 Special Olympics athletes from across the United States, as well as more than 1,000 coaches and official delegates and 9,000 family members and friends to Ames. Volunteers will be a key component to the success of the overall event, and organizers already have begun to recruit the nearly 6,000 individuals needed for the event.
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Alumni Hall, on the campus of Iowa State University, which will be one of the venues for competition during the 2006 National Games. Iowa State's nearly 2,000-acre, park-like campus includes many buildings that are included on the National Register of Historic Places; it is ranked among the nation's 25 most beautiful campuses in the book, The Campus as a Work of Art and is one of only three university campuses to make the American Association of Landscape Architect's centennial listing of "Medallion Sites." (For other views of the campus, visit its Web site and Webcam.) |
Competition will be held at Iowa State University and in the central Iowa area. A tentative list of sports for the 2006 National Games includes aquatics, athletics, basketball, gymnastics, powerlifting, softball and volleyball. A Motor Activities Training Program (MATP) also may be offered as part of the Games. MATP is a noncompetitive program designed for persons with severe limitations who do not yet possess the physical and/or behavioral skills necessary to participate in official Special Olympics sports. |
