{"id":8157,"date":"2023-09-01T10:20:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-01T08:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/?p=8157"},"modified":"2023-09-15T15:48:25","modified_gmt":"2023-09-15T13:48:25","slug":"olympic-flame-burns-for-inclusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/2023\/09\/olympic-flame-burns-for-inclusion\/","title":{"rendered":"Olympic Flame Burns for Inclusion"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Annett Langer worked as a volunteer at the Olympics World Games in Berlin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI had goosebumps the entire time. It was so \u00admoving. It was an incredible feeling to be there in person.\u201d Even weeks later, Annett Langer, CPIM\/Business Process Management, was still caught up in emotion as she spoke about the opening ceremony of the Special Olympics World Games in Berlin\u2019s Olympic stadium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People with mental disabilities and multiple handicaps compete in these games, and her moving, personally enriching experience with them as a volunteer resonates in every word she says. As a volunteer \u2013 a ball girl during tennis matches \u2013 she felt she was part of a large family full of people with special skills and needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cWe are all just people. Yes, these people are different, but they are just like you or me,\u201d Langer said. What she experienced in the form of openness and unfiltered warmth during her time in Berlin will likely stay with her far into the future. \u201cYou have to experience it and feel it yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the athletics standpoint, she found the competitors to be tremendously focused and skilled. She has the deepest respect for them and was amazed at their level of performance. \u201cI am active in sports myself and I know how much effort it takes and how hard and tirelessly you have to work.\u201d In her leisure time, she attends sporting events of different kinds and has gotten to know \u201ca lot of very nice people from different countries.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall, she would have liked to see the \u00adgeneral public show even more appreciation for the World Games athletes. But Langer puts it this way: Her involvement \u201chas contributed in a small way to making the world a bit better, more inclusive and more diverse place.\u201d She would like to see others follow her lead. Incidentally, after her return from Berlin, she immediately applied to be a volunteer at the next Special Olympics World Games.<\/p>\n

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Annett Langer worked as a volunteer at the Olympics World Games in Berlin. \u201cI had goosebumps the entire time. It was so \u00admoving. It was an incredible feeling to be…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7789,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[419],"tags":[585],"powerkit_post_featured":[],"class_list":["post-8157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-diversity-inclusion-en","tag-edition-04_2023-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8157"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8162,"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8157\/revisions\/8162"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8157"},{"taxonomy":"powerkit_post_featured","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/powerkit_post_featured?post=8157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}