Eight swimmers from Special Olympics Israel took part in an Open Water event in Achziv at the northern part of the country on 6 May. The Mediterranean sea was calm and looked like a mirror. There was no wind, so it was not cold coming out of the water but the water was cold. It was the end of spring and the sea had not warmed up yet.
About 100 swimmers dashed into the cold water, among them eight Special Olympics swimmers and three Unified partners. All came out of the water having done good results considering this was the first Open Water event for this season. Nearly all swimmers won medals not only in our Special Olympics medal ceremony but also in the general medal ceremony which was categorized by age groups and included all the swimmers that participated in the event.
Six of our swimmers went home with two medals from one swim (one Special Olympics medal and one general event medal). All the swimmers around applauded and cheered our swimmers in both ceremonies. Our swimmers really were champions of the day!