The Brave Boys are a mixture of excitement and nerves ahead of their international floorball debut at the Special Olympics World Winter Games in Turin, Italy, today.
The same feelings gripped the team during a spectacular opening ceremony inside the Inalpi Arena in Turin on Sunday.
These emotions are justified given that the Brave Boys are part of the world’s largest sport and humanitarian event of the year.
So said Special Olympics Namibia team coach Kenerazo ‘Rocky’ Mendu after the team cardio agility session yesterday.
The boys were put through their paces at the match venue to get a feel of the conditions when they get the ball rolling against Mexico this morning.
“It’s a big stadium and it’s a quality stadium. We conducted our first training session on the court for the boys to acclimatise and to adapt to the environment and the situation of the play,” Mendu said.
“This is a divisioning game that we are taking part in before the tournament. It determines the strength and the ability of the athletes.
“So, we are going to play our first game and then we are going to be grouped with other teams that have the same ability as us,” he explained.
Through creativity, partnership and improvised equipment, Namibia’s floorball team has found a curious path to not only play the sport, but to excel and reach the world stage in Turin for the 2025 World Winter Games.
In Namibia, floorball is not the most well-known sport. In fact, competitive teams were almost always concentrated in the nation’s capital, Windhoek. This meant athletes from outside regions were unable to access the coaching and equipment needed to engage in the game. But as interest in this team-based sport grew, Special Olympics Namibia implemented an innovative method to connect with more athletes.
“Tomorrow it will be our first game, in fact, because, as you know, we do not have floorball teams at home,” said Mendu.
“We just practise and play among ourselves. But now it will be against other teams. The boys are looking forward to playing their first game and they are ready.
“We’ll see how we can take it up from there. All the boys are good, the spirit is good.”
IMPROVISING ON AND OFF THE COURT
Despite being relative novices to the game of floorball, Namibia intend to give it their best shot in Turin.
In May 2024, Special Olympics Namibia hosted their National Games. They used this opportunity to introduce all their regions to floorball, through a “skills area” that provided equipment and coaching to demonstrate the basics of the sport.
The activation was so popular that the organisers did not have enough equipment for every athlete that expressed interest in learning to play.
A challenge that grew larger after the success of this skills area at the National Games prompted programmes across the country to inquire about equipment for interested athletes.
The dilemma was that Special Olympics Namibia still relied on the floorball sticks and gear utilised during the 2017 Austria World Games, and simply put, it was not enough to go around.
Namibia does not have a national floorball association or federation, which makes it difficult to secure equipment through a traditional partnership.
To meet the demand of their athletes for functioning equipment their national team can compete with, Special Olympics Namibia connected with their network of Special Olympics programmes across the African region.
Another country’s sport director secured secondhand gear and sent these to Special Olympics Namibia, thus supplementing their ageing equipment from Austria.
Although this provided a solution for the national team, there were still many athletes across wider regions of Namibia who love floorball, yet didn’t have the equipment to practice and play. Certain programmes got creative and made their own sticks out of available materials. This included carved wood, sanded branches and even repurposed oars.
It is clear these regional teams are ready and hungry for competition and opportunities.
The Special Olympics National Floorball Games took place in Windhoek in September 2024 with a particularly strong turnout. This led to an outstanding competition that decided the floorball team who would represent Special Olympics Namibia at the World Winter Games in Turin.
Special Olympics Namibia hopes that all athletes understand they are winners for trying so hard, practicing regularly and being innovative with training equipment. They are indeed brave in the attempt!
The Special Olympics World Winter Games Turin 2025 will be held in Italy from 8 to 15 March, with over 1 500 athletes from more than 100 countries competing across eight sports: alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, dancesport, figure skating, floorball, short track speed skating, snowboarding, snowshoeing.
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