SPECIAL Olympians geared up for the one of the greatest weeks in their lives last night when they attended the opening ceremony of the Special Olympics World Games 2003. Seven thousand athletes walked into Croke Park yesterday evening for the opening spectacular, which ran for well over three hours and was a spectacle of colour, dance and music. Although celebrities from the worlds of sport, music, film and television turned out in force, the night was about the athletes and no one, for a moment, forgot that.

Images focused on the World Games athletes smiling and dancing to the music, and jumping for joy when Special Olympics founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver told them that they were an example for the whole world to follow. "They said that people with intellectual disabilities couldn't run 100 metres, " she said, "tonight some of you are preparing to run a marathon. The world thanks you."

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