Youth Unified Basketball in LITHUANIA

The soul of the team is Bol

For several years "Vilijampole" boarding house, in Kaunas, Lithuania have been in contact with students and athletes from the nearby mainstream school in Garliava. At first there were only occasional meetings but when the Special Olympics Unified Basketball program started in Lithuania last year, providing opportunities for individuals with intellectual disability (called athletes) and without intellectual disabilities (called partners) to train and compete together, their friendship grew from strength to strength.

Now students from both schools train and compete regularly together – sometimes at the boarding house and sometimes at the Garliava school. The students from the Garliava school enjoy the teamwork with the Special Olympics athletes and the most popular and celebrated athlete is without a doubt Valerij Bol.

Valerij Bol has down syndrome. He can‘t speak but communicates very clearly with guestures. He is passionate about Basketball and loves to train even takig time to demonstrate ball techniques to his teammates. When he is not playing in the Unified Basketball team he is watching basketball games on TV, never missing a match!
His joy of the game, good spirits and energy inspires everyone. He is the soul of the Unified Basketball team.

Special Olympics Lithuania is part of a European Youth Unified development project which took on the goal of recruiting 500 new young Unified Basketball players aged between 12 and 25  across six countries (Serbia, Russia, Bulgaria, Germany, Lithuania and Ukraine) between June 2008 and May 2009 with the ultimate aim of breaking down social barriers.

The Youth Unified Basketball development project is supported through a Special Olympics Christmas Record Grant.  Special Olympics awards funds each year through its Christmas Record Grants initiative.  These grants, funded through the sales of A Very Special Christmas® album, support Special Olympics Programs around the World.

Photo: Bol is number 4 on the attached picture which shows him with his team mates. (Photo courtesy of Special Olympics Lithuania)