New Delhi:India's Special Olympics Bharat team for athletes with intellectual disabilities left for Sweden on Friday, July 10, to defend its Special Olympics Trophy title at the Gothia Cup 2026. Playing for the first time in 2024, the team clinched the title in successive years and now attempts to become the first side to win the competition three years in succession.
The tournament will be played in Gothenburg 12-18 July.
entering as a top contender. The contingent consists of 10 athletes and two coaches from nine states and Union Territories. It is noteworthy that the players were selected following a four-day national qualifying tournament held at the Centre for Defence Sports in Gwalior in April where more than 150 athletes from 16 states took part. They then attended several national training camps before a final squad was selected.
At the Embassy of Sweden in New Delhi, where Sweden’s Ambassador to India Jan Thesleff praised the team’s accomplishments, the squad was given a rousing send-off.
This team has won the biggest tournament, the Gothia Cup, two years in a row, these players really are the champions and the ambassadors. “They are the pride of India and the pride of Sweden as well,” Thesleff told the media.
How are the players recruited?Meanwhile, coach Onaciss Madavadasse shared that working with athletes with intellectual disabilities required a different way of communication during training sessions and matches. He also said the training program was conducted in phases before final selection of the team.
We played the matches at Gwalior. “First camp was about individual skills, second camp was about coordination within the team and third camp we added coordination with the opponents and then we picked the players on that basis,” Onaciss told media.
“Some of these guys don't talk. We try to teach them through gestures and sign language. It’s certainly not easy (to communicate). We try to 'talk' with our eyes. “There are no different languages during the matches, there is only sign language that we use,” he added.
SKF India (Industrial) sponsors Special Olympics Bharat team. For the past three years they have been involved in the selection, training and overseas participation of athletes. The company has also been linked to Gothia Cup and Special Olympics worldwide.
The Gothia Cup is an annual event in Gothenburg, Sweden, founded in 1975, which attracts over 1,900 teams from more than 70 countries. The tournament has included the Special Olympics Trophy for athletes with intellectual disabilities since 2011.
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