10 athletes with special abilities will represent Albania at the World Special Olympic Games held in Berlin. Before the departure, the delegation was received by the mayor of Tirana, Erion Veliaj.

“I am sure that you are winners, it does not matter how many medals will bring from Berlin, but what matters is how many athletes we will take to Berlin. There are 10 stars that will shine and I believe that they will inspire tens, hundreds, and maybe thousands of others, who will follow your journey, who will be inspired by your story. The message we want to give to kids with special needs is that everyone is someone. Even for us, all these children are someone and they are very important for our city,” said Veliaj.

Adding more and more representatives to the special games according to the mayor is what we should be aiming for.

“Even our Special Olympics team is just as important as our Olympic Games team. And our team going to Berlin this year is just as important as the team going to Paris in 2024 to break records there. So, I would like as we prepare for this standard, we think should thing about a higher standard. We have reached a mountain top, but every mountain top is the foot of another mountain, which is even higher. We started with 2, we are at 10, now we have to think that now on this mountain top, like the foot of the next mountain, that when the next games come, we will have not 10, but 20, 30 athletes and I am sure that that feeling of philanthropy will also be awakened,” said Veliaj.

In 2019, Albania was represented at the Special Olympic World Games by only 2 athletes competing in 2 disciplines, swimming and athletics.