Your Excellency Antonio Gonzalez
Mayor Jamil Mahaud
Ambassador Peter Romero and Mrs. Romero
Hector Cueva
Lourdes Armendariz
Distinguished Guests
All Benefactors of Special Olympics Ecuador
Friends:
1995 has been the greatest year in the history of Special Olympics, and Ecuador, your own country, has been one of the best in all the world. So, first of all, I want to say, loud and clear, Congratulations to Ecuador! Congratulations to Hector Cueva, Lourdes Armendariz.
Moreover your country has achieved the highest percentage of athletes to population in the whole world. 17,000 athletes, 2,500 Volunteers, and 1,000 Family Members is a record for a country of your population. All of you should be proud of your achievement.
But more is yet to come!
In 1995 Special Olympics reached 1,200,000 athletes in 145 countries. Our Gross Income exceeded $100,000,000. No athletic program has ever matched Special Olympics in giving week-by-week training to one million athletes for only $100 per athlete per annum! That’s because we have more Volunteer coaches, Volunteer trainers, Volunteer officials, and financial supporters than any world-wide sports program. We have more parents and brothers and sisters and friends than any program. So, we get more bang for every dollar than any athletic program. And we are 100% amateur sports!!! Operated by a private corporation not dependent on taxation by any Government on any people except for Communist Countries like the Peoples’ Republic of China. 1995 was also the time of our World Games. Those Games were the best in history. 7,200 athletes participated; 3,500 coaches; 35,000 Volunteers; 60,000 spectators at our Opening Ceremonies; 1,500 TV, radio, and newspaper correspondents. Our 1995 Games were the biggest athletic event in the world in 1995. And the President and Director of those Games is with us here tonight. Stand up, please, Timothy Shriver. Timothy was and is superb. But he is lucky! Just look at his wife! Stand up Linda Potter! Beautiful Mother of four fabulous children, herself a lawyer! Linda is unsurpassed in beauty and brains and motherhood!
But: listen to this fact
Our Games for 7,200 athletes from 145 countries cost $35,000,000. The regular Olympic Games this year will cost $1,250,000,000 for 10,000 athletes. Our Games cost less than $5,000 per athlete; the Olympic Games will cost $125,000 per athlete!
Why do I bother you with all these statistics and records? I tell you these facts because they reveal what the future may be.
Today, there are on earth 150,000,000 human beings with mental retardation. We and you are now reaching one million of them. Suppose we increase to two, three, or five million. We would still be just “scratching the surface.” But we would be the biggest athletic program in the world!
I truly believe that is the direction where Special Olympics is going. And Special Olympics Ecuador is going with us.
We are destined to bring the benefit of sports to all persons with mental retardation.
The Greek Olympic Committee, the Mayor of Athens, and the President of Greece last year all announced their support for “Special Olympics”. They said that we represent the true spirit of the original Olympics.
Pope John Paul II issued a personal letter of commendation to Special Olympics. He signed the letter himself. It was the first time the Vatican ever saluted a sports program!
The President of the U.S., Fidel Castro in Cuba, Lech Walesa in Poland, Vaclav Havel in the Czech Republic, the President of South Africa, and the King of Saudi Arabia all have endorsed Special Olympics.
Most important of all, we now have 500,000 Volunteers, and an equal number of family members working, free-of-charge for Special Olympics.
Every person at this banquet tonight is helping generously. More citizens of your country will follow your example.
Let’s not be pessimistic!
Let’s remember that just one woman, on her own, started these incredible Special Olympics. She is with us tonight. She loves all of you. She told me so. She thanks all of you. She told me to tell you so. Like a proper husband I rejoice in her creation. You are part, a most exciting part, of that creation. So we are all together joined in a more marvelous cause, happy to be together, and certain that God is with all of us.
