First launched at the Special Olympics World Winter Games Turin 2025, the Toyota Motor Europe (TME) Recovery Rooms proved a huge success with athletes and Unified Partners alike. Almost 1,500 recovery sessions in TME’s dedicated post-competition facilities across three venues covering all eight sports were recorded at the Turin Games. A Toyota Recovery Room was also introduced at the Special Olympics Belgium National Games in Kortrijk in May 2025 and the demand was equally strong among summer sports athletes seeking post-competition relief. Now, the TME Recovery Room team is turning its attention to the Special Olympics Unified Volleyball World Cup in Katowice from 5 to 8 October where 16 teams comprising almost 200 players will be going for gold.
As in the Recovery Rooms in Italy and Belgium, the facilities in Katowice will offer an elite-level post competition space to relax, get recovery advice and take advantage of non-medical massage tools based on air compression, pulse and vibrating technology. Patricia Hall, Senior Specialist, Sports & Athlete Support at Toyota Motor Europe and Tyrone Pillay Manager, Sports and Athlete Support, Toyota Motor Europe saw the impact of the facility first hand when they volunteered at the Recovery Rooms in Turin.
Patricia says, “We had a fantastic experience at the World Winter Games. The feedback that we got from the athletes and their broader teams was that it would be really worthwhile to roll out this activity.”
Tyrone adds, “I loved the experience. I got to share so much that I have experienced and had the advantage of sharing some amazing recovery tools with the athletes.”
He continues, “I received a lot of feedback and it was all positive – the athletes and Unified Partners loved what we offered to them. They were in shock that they had access to all of this great equipment for free. Seeing their faces and their excitement made it rewarding and made us realise what a great concept it is.”
The idea behind the Recovery Rooms is based on equality of access to recovery equipment for ALL athletes. Patricia explains, “Toyota Europe wants to ensure that all athletes are treated the same, we had a recovery lounge during the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games so it was logical that we would offer the same facilities at the Special Olympics World Games.”
For the Unified Volleyball World Cup, Trish and Tyrone promise only the best once again. After athletes leave the court, they can look forward to experiencing a place to recover and gather themselves, state of the art recovery equipment and a dedicated team that wants to help them to get the best out of their competition experience.
TME’s commitment to the Recovery Room concept is part of a wider company-wide objective to achieve equality for all athletes. Patricia says, “Toyota is doing this to create a better understanding of sport and people with different abilities in sport and create a society where all athletes are equal. This starts with our own colleagues by making them advocates.” TME offers three days of volunteering experiences with Special Olympics to all 4,000 of its Belgian based employees with the aim of ensuring that all personnel have the opportunity to interact with athletes.
Toyota Europe will be on hand in Katowice, and are looking forward to offering athletes the top-level facilities and services that they richly deserve.
