David Sullivan

David Sullivan is an athlete from Special Olympics New Zealand in the Asia Pacific Region. David participates in swimming and indoor bowling. He has been involved in Special Olympics since 2008.

David’s favorite parts about Special Olympics are participating and having fun with his friends in sports.

David is excited for the congress in Berlin. He is looking forward to being there with all the other members. David is excited about sharing what he learned with his project.

David is employed as a manufacturing assistant at Cargills Enterprise Dunedin. As a manufacturing assistant he makes things out of wood and assists loading and unloading trucks with the forklift. When David isn’t working or competing, he enjoys trains, especially steam trains. He drives model trains every Sunday for people to ride. David also enjoys participating in his singing group as well as listening to music.

David says that being an athlete leader has given him new skills and the ability to communicate with people about Special Olympics. He says that being an athlete leader is a wonderful opportunity to meet other athlete leaders from around New Zealand and the world.

David’s grant plan is to increase the number of athletes in meaningful leadership roles inside Special Olympics. He will do this by first investigating the cause of a 20 percent decline in athlete participation in the Otago New Zealand region since the Covid-19 pandemic began. David will identify eight athlete sports leaders and facilitate training sessions to improve communication and become familiar with standard reporting systems. He will create a logbook to be used by leaders in reporting their findings in a standard manner. David will publish the findings for his club. He will continue to facilitate communication between the new sports leaders and the Executive Committee.