Pakistan to take part in Special Olympics in Austria

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is participating in the Special Olympics World winter games 2017 are taking place in Austria at three venues Graz, Ramsau and Schladming, according to Pakistan Ski Federation.

The Pakistan contingent will include 12 athletes, four coaches, two delegation staff and one media person.

In all, 107 countries are participating in nine sports in the Special Olympics World winter games.

Pakistan is taking part in two sports: snow shoeing and cross country skiing.

World winter games take place every four years.

Pakistan also had three youth leaders attending the global youth summit held alongside the world winter games.

Three youth leaders from Pakistan are Muhammad Haseeb Abbasi, Abdul Basit Khan and Sarah Amin Ali.

The last world winter games were in Korea Pyeong Chang where Pakistan participated with four athletes in snow shoeing. They hail from Sindh, Punjab, Federal and Gilgit-Baltistan.

These athletes were trained in five camps since 2015. Their skiing and snow shoeing training took place in Naltar and Kalabagh and fitness camps were held in Karachi and Lahore.

Three athletes from Punjab have been sponsored by the Government of Punjab.

Their coaches are Shumiala Erum, Irfan Anwar, Amina Baig and Zahid Farooq.