On 22 November 2021, Special Olympics launched Faces of Basketball, a unique online-offline activity hub and campaign to celebrate European Basketball Week 2021 (EBW) and International Day of Persons with Disabilities on 3 December. Faces of Basketball is a hybrid model in English, French, German, Italian, Russian and Spanish tailored for our current Covid-19 recovery reality.
Special Olympics Belgium and Paralympics athlete, Tamara Medarts, and Special Olympics Belgium basketball coach, Valerie Geluykens, have been working as a unified duo since 2015. Tamara started playing basketball at eight years old after a shoulder injury prevented her from continuing to swim.
Valerie started playing basketball when she was 18 and joined Special Olympics ten years ago. Tamara and Valerie played on the same unified team for seven years and eventually, she trained Tamara to get her qualifications as a coach. They now work together in coaching a Young Unified Team for Special Olympics Belgium.
This year, the focus will be on basketball events that are happening in countries before or during European Basketball Week. Special Olympics programs are encouraged to upload all basketball events to the Faces of Basketball platform!
The website will feature a new events page that will allow users to consult and check out all the events happening near them; a news and stories page where all the highlights from EBW 2021 will be gathered and shared and two to three locker room training videos. Faces of Basketball will also be available in six different languages.
Join now and take part in European Basketball Week 2021!
Check out the latest episode of the Inclusion Revolution Radio podcast to hear more from Tamara Medarts and Valerie Geluykens about the launch of this campaign.