Photos by Donald B Kravitz
Ocean City hosted a new Unified Pickleball event on Saturday, Jan. 28. at the Ocean City Sports and Civic Center at Sixth Street and Boardwalk.
In the Special Olympics, the term “Unified” designates sports in which athletes with disabilities team up with people from the community or local teams. The inaugural event in Ocean City included 16 athletes with disabilities such as Down syndrome, autism and cerebral palsy. They ranged in age from teens to young adults.
Play was broken up into 10-minute sessions geared toward teaching the game. The Special Olympics hopes to make pickleball an official sport in the near future. It will be included as an exhibition competition at this year’s Special Olympics’ State Summer Games. While Saturday’s event in Ocean City was not officially affiliated with the Special Olympics, the goal was to give local athletes a head start in the new sport. The city hopes one day to be a host of official Special Olympics Pickleball events.
Ocean City is home to annual Special Olympics competitions in swimming (scheduled this year for March 19), track and field (May 7) and other events.
“We are very excited about this new event, and I would love to make Ocean City a Special Olympics town,” Mayor Jay Gillian said.
Donald B. Kravitz is an Entertainment & Special Events photographer for national publications including Getty Images & Miss America
