Special sports meeting

Special sports games are not a "lite version" of ordinary comprehensive sports games. Its core logic is "accurate adaptation" - setting rules and schedules around specific participating groups and specific sports events. The core value is to fill in the blind spots of participation that are not covered by comprehensive sports games. It can not only carry the assessment attributes of professional competitions, but also meet the sports participation needs of niche groups and special groups.

To be honest, before I put it into practice, I thought this thing was just a gimmick with a different name, and it would be no different from an ordinary sports meeting after half a day of tossing. Last year, when I was doing cultural and sports services in the street, I held two events in a row. One was a special track and field sports meeting for the hearing-impaired group in the jurisdiction, and the other was a special fitness meeting for the chronically ill people aged 45-65. I went through a lot of pitfalls before I figured out the way.

Let’s take the hearing-impaired event as an example. At the beginning, we followed the procedure of the ordinary school sports meeting. We even had the starting gun ready. The coach from the Hearing-impaired Sports Association who came to check in early reminded us that we quickly changed the starting link to a strobe starter. We also added sign-raising guides at the finish line, just in case the athletes wouldn’t hear the finishing reminder. Don't tell me, we originally estimated that the number of applicants was only fifty or sixty, but in the end almost two hundred people actually came, and there were also hearing-impaired sports enthusiasts from surrounding cities who specially formed a team to come. What impressed me most was a 17-year-old high school sophomore who won the championship in the 100-meter race. He came down and hugged his coach for a long time. The coach translated and said that he had signed up for a sports meeting at school before. The teacher was afraid that he would not hear the order and was in danger, so he persuaded him several times not to sign up. This was the first time for him to stand on a formal track and compete. During the award ceremony, we originally prepared a very exciting background music, but then we temporarily changed it to everyone holding up light sticks and shaking them. The scene was so bright that it was like a field of stars. No one cared whether there was music or not, everyone was shaking the sticks in their hands and laughing.

There were more adjustments for the chronic disease event. The originally scheduled 500-meter run was changed to a 200-meter power walk, and the medicine ball was replaced by a soft foam ball weighing less than one pound. Doctors from the community hospital stood beside each event, carrying a blood pressure monitor and an AED. Uncle Zhang, who usually dared not even dance casually in the community square, won third place in the power walking that day. He walked around the vegetable market for three days with the prize thermos bottle. When he met everyone, he said, "I have also won a sports competition award in my life."

At this point, some people may ask, should the special sports games become more professional, or should they become more inclusive? In fact, the industry has not reached a unified conclusion at all. The two factions have been arguing for almost two or three years. Friends who are involved in professional events always complain that the current special events in many places are too "watery". For example, even novices who don't know how to wear snowboards can sign up for special ski events. They completely lose the professional attribute of "special events" and they are just a face-saving project to gather the number of people. But his old colleagues who work in mass sports always tell him that the core of mass sports games is to "provide a platform for people who have no chance to participate in ordinary sports venues." If all qualifications are based on the standards of professional athletes, then 90% of ordinary enthusiasts will not even be able to touch the registration threshold. What is the point of having special sports?

After hosting so many games myself, I feel that there is no need to argue about right and wrong. The core of special sports games is "adaptation". Different positioning means different rules. If it were a special sports meeting for police actual combat of the public security system, then one would definitely have to strive for professionalism to the death. After all, what is being compared is the hard power of daily training. ； If it is organized by communities or trade unions for special groups, then looser rules and lower thresholds will be the meaning of "special" - after all, it is impossible for a comprehensive sports meeting to change the starter for a small number of hearing-impaired athletes, nor to change events for groups with chronic diseases. Only special sports meetings can do this.

Someone asked me a few days ago, what is the core meaning of special sports games? I actually can't answer anything too grand. I just remember Uncle Zhang smiling while holding a thermos bottle, and the 17-year-old boy standing on the podium, holding up the medal and shaking it in the flashing light. For them, this competition venue specially designed for them is more important than any professional rankings or competition specifications. To put it bluntly, if you can make the people who come to participate feel that "this competition is for me", it has been done well.