10 athletes from Special Olympics Great Britain (GB) descended on Aberdeen as part of a training weekend in advance of the 2025 Special Olympics World Winter Games in Turin, Italy.  

Eight athletes came along to Adventure Aberdeen Snowsports Centre on Saturday 13 July to practice skiing and two athletes practiced ice skating at Linx Ice Arena on Sunday 14 July.

Special Olympics Great Britain is a registered charity, which uses the power of sport to transform the lives of children and adults with an intellectual disability.

As part of the global Special Olympics movement, the Special Olympics World Winter Games is a quadrennial event, which takes place in 2025 across Italy and France, from 8 to 15 March, bringing together more than 1,500 athletes from 103 countries to compete in eight winter sports.

Within this, the Team Special Olympics Great Britain delegation will participate in the Alpine Skiing and Figure Skating competitions.

The ten athletes competed in their sports earlier this year at the first Special Olympics GB National Winter Games in Folgaria, Italy, before they were nominated and subsequently selected by the coaching and management team, who assessed multiple criteria including commitment to training, life goals, leadership skills and more.

Bob Thow, Alpine Skiing Head Coach at Special Olympics GB, said: “I would like to thank Sport Aberdeen for allowing Team SOGB to use their sport facilities for the first training weekend in preparation for the World Winter Games in Italy and France.

“It was very beneficial to the athletes as some of the coaches are from Sport Aberdeen and know the facilities at the Adventure Aberdeen Snowsports Centre.

“Linx Ice Arena and Get active @ Lochside have put together a training programme for each athlete in the lead up to the World Winter Games. The athletes really enjoyed their weekend in Aberdeen.”

Kris Bell, Operations Manager at Adventure Aberdeen Snowsports Centre, said: “We were delighted to host the Special Olympics GB team for their training session this year.

“We have a great relationship with the team having held training sessions before, and it’s great to see the team progress and have fun whilst they are here!”