Perfect start: Bronze in the boccia team competition

“‘Unbeatable together’ – the motto of the games became reality with our team,” said Lebenshilfe-Upper Austria employee Gottfried Alberndorfer, celebrating a tailor-made start to the 16th Special Olympics with 7,000 active people with mental and multiple disabilities from 190 nations in Berlin.

His two protégés from the Freistadt workshop, Jakob Kreindl and Erik Schirmer, secured the bronze medal in the Boccia team competition together with Christine Frohner and Svenja Gehrmann from Vorarlberg. In the decisive match against the Canadian quartet, the result was a clear 11:5 win.

This is remarkable in that the red-white-red four have never competed in this constellation before.

The other two Upper Austrian participants (in athletics) weren’t lucky, Melinda Baumgartlinger and Daniel Weilhartner from the Lebenshilfe workshop in Ried im Innkreis were disqualified in the 50-meter run. It’s not all over yet, there are still more opportunities.

“Both of them have every reason to be proud of themselves and are looking forward to the next competitions,” reported trainer Maria Gruber.