Alumni Stadium hosts over 400 athletes
The World Dwarf Games were held at the University of Guelph from August 4 to 12. More than 15 countries were represented by over 400 athletes.The opening ceremonies were held at Alumni Stadium and began with the parade of athletes, where each country walked across the field to their national anthem.
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The ceremonies included speeches from:
- Scott McRoberts, director of athletics at U of G
- Mark MacKinnon, councillor
- Lloyd Longfield, member of Parliament
- Arthur Dean, president of the International Dwarf Athletic Association
- John Young, Canadian Paralympian
Many of the speeches thanked those involved in the 2017 World Dwarf Games and demonstrated how excited Guelph is to host the World Dwarf Games.McRoberts hoped that the athletes would get a “chance to explore this excellent city for all that it has to offer.”
[media-credit name=”Tasha Falconer” align=”aligncenter” width=”1020″]
Longfield noted that it is “good to see the diversity in our community here today. In Canada we have diversity every day. But when we have people from around the world to celebrate together, it means a lot for our community, our country, and our world.Young discussed overcoming society’s perceptions of little people, stating that “every little person here has heard at some time in their life ‘you’re too small to do that,’ well all I want to say is: Watch us now.”He also noted that “age, weight, and height. They’re just numbers.”
[trx_slider engine=”swiper” custom=”yes” count=”3″ offset=”0″ orderby=”date” order=”desc” controls=”yes” pagination=”no” titles=”no” descriptions=”0″ links=”yes” crop=”yes” autoheight=”yes” slides_per_view=”1″ slides_space=”0″ interval=”5000″ top=”inherit” bottom=”inherit” left=”inherit” right=”inherit”] [trx_slider_item src=”https://www.theontarion.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/WorldDarfGames_TashaFolconer11_W.jpg”] [trx_slider_item src=”https://www.theontarion.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/WorldDarfGames_TashaFolconer10_W.jpg”] [trx_slider_item src=”https://www.theontarion.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/WorldDarfGames_TashaFolconer9_W.jpg”] [trx_slider_item src=”https://www.theontarion.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/WorldDarfGames_TashaFolconer8_W.jpg”] [/trx_slider]Photos by Tasha Falconer
The games were officially started with the announcement,
“I now declare: Let the games begin!”
Photo by Tasha Falconer.