Last morning In Dubai. Seems each morning here is foggy, which matches my state at times from lack of sleep. Nights are very late at world games and here it has become the norm. It’s all good, this is what we sign up for and those of us who have been here before expect it. We also know what is ahead, a difficult egress back to the states and leaving those athletes to scatter to their homes.
Yesterday was the final day of competition at the Police Academy sports facility, home of the track stadium which was our venue for the past 2 weeks. With our team gathered on the “grassy knoll” ( a small hill overlooking the track awards area) prior to leaving and boarding a bus, I ask all to look around, to soak in and appreciate where they have been and what they have done. They, we, are at a World games.
Back at the hotel we eat quietly, maybe a little earlier than we usually found ourselves for most of the games. About halfway thru the meal, I commented to other coaches-“look around....look at them.” All the athletes were huddled around small tables talking, laughing, smiling and eating without a care of anything else or us. They had become one family. They’d get up to leave and assemble at our usual meeting place, the baby grand piano upstairs. Some would swing back a coach table, but most just knew the routine and what was expected of them. As a parent might say of a child, “they’ve grown up so quickly. “
One of the media asked later what was a highlight of the games and that one seemed to stand out and it had nothing to do with athletics or sport, but yet, it’s just as important a part of special Olympics.
The evening was spent packing, always a challenging task. Carryons had to be packed with clothes for the next two days and large roller duffles arranged as they wouldn’t see them again until New Jersey. Even packing myself is a task, so needless to say, the athletes had quite a job ahead. For the most part, by midnight all was accomplished plus a coaches meeting to run through all the information for the following days of travel and closing ceremonies. It wouldn’t be relaxing to be sure, but again, it’s part of the world games. In the morning we’d have our last breakfast in Dubai, start moving luggage to the truck for shipping and doing last minute carryon stuffing. It was starting to sink in to the athletes that this awesome experience was coming to an end. Some tears, lots of hugs. There really wasn’t much downtime (especially for me) and small “fires” kept popping up prior to leaving. By 2:00 we were loaded into the team bus and off to Abu Dhabi. I thought I’d be a quiet trip and some athletes did sleep, but it was more last minute laughs and stories the entire way.
AD is larger and older and I can say, I liked Dubai better just from riding through both cities a couple times. We’d be housed at the Marriot after closing ceremonies, for a few hours for a 3:00 am wake up. From that early start it’s off to the airport and the longggg process of getting thousands of athletes thru to their gates and planes. I have that to look forward to a few minutes from this typing. I can hear Caleb zipping luggage and I’ve done my wake up calls to my athletes. They seemed more or less coherent.
So good bye Abu Dhabai and Dubai and the world games, you have brought us a lifetime of memories and I’m sure you’re not quite done with us yet. Off to the US of A.
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