June 2003 was a memorable month for the Sweeney family from Co Tyrone. Twenty years ago this week, Sammy Jo Sweeney (33) won the first Irish medal at the Special Olympics World Games in Dublin, while her sister Aoife was being born in Craigavon Area Hospital.
“It was a special time for us,” recalls Paul Sweeney, father of Sammy Jo and Aoife.
“My wife Joanne was actually in hospital after having the baby and she was in one of the wards and the nurse came in and Joanne was screaming and screaming and the nurse said ‘is everything okay, is it pain relief or what’s wrong,” Mr Sweeney said.
“She [Joanne] said no, on the TV behind her Sammy Jo was doing an interview and holding up her medal and she saw this and was screaming. The nurses in the hospital didn’t know what was going on.”
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Mr Sweeney added that he and his wife decided to name their daughter Aoife after Sammy Jo’s team-mate at the time, Aoife Beston.
“To have our daughter as the first Irish medal winner at a World Games in Dublin was history, it’s something we’ll have forever,” he said.
While Sammy Jo picked up bronze in athletics at the tournament in 2003, she is on course to secure two gold medals in bocce, an Italian game similar to bowls, at the World Games in Berlin over the coming days.
Sammy Jo said she has “good memories” from her first ever competition and remembers meeting Muhammad Ali and Ronan Keating.
“I was at the World Games in Dublin in 2003 and won my first medal in it and my sister was born the day after. It was good fun, I enjoyed it,” she said.
Mr Sweeney said since his daughter’s involvement in the 2003 Games, he, his wife and his daughter have all became coaches for the Special Olympics while another daughter is a volunteer with the organisation.
“That has all come from Sammy Jo,” he said.
“Her development, her social skills, the fact that she knows she can go and stay away from home and all that kind of thing, and she’s become quite a quite a mother figure around the [Special Olympics] club at home ... Originally Sammy Jo, she would come in from school, she would have watched a lot of DVDs and stuff.
“She would come down and join the family activities and things like that but it would have been fairly limited. She works in McDonald’s at home now and I think personally going away to the [World] Games, sharing time with other athletes, and different things like that has developed that skill, 95 per cent of that has come from Special Olympics.”
Team Ireland has so far secured three medals at the 2023 Games – gold for Timothy Morahan in athletics and bronzes for Eoin O’Connell in the open water swimming category and Jenny O’Halloran in gymnastics.
Athletes from 187 nations are taking part in this year’s tournament, including 73 from Ireland, who are competing across 12 sports – athletics, badminton, basketball, bocce, bowling, equestrian, football, golf, gymnastics, kayaking, swimming and table tennis.
