Belize Special Olympics Athletes Delayed Return Home

They were scheduled to arrive on the United Airlines flight around eleven-thirty this morning and then participate in a motorcade having competed and won three medals for Belize, but today, four athletes and two chaperones are delayed in New York after the airline company bumped them from their flights. While the issue was unpredictable, the athletes are graduating on Thursday and so every effort is being made to get them home by Wednesday. News Five’s Duane Moody reports.

Duane Moody, Reporting

Over the past ten days, they have been proudly representing Belize and managed to put the country on the map at the Special Olympics Games in Germany. Tiwannie Laurie won silver adult female bocce, meanwhile Kadine Thomas and Barrington Gentle won silver in male unified bocce; Laurie and Annaliese Pascasio also won bronze in female unified bocce.

Shantel Yearwood, Board Secretary, Special Olympics Belize

Shantel Yearwood

“We are extremely proud of our athletes. They were very nervous in the beginning when they got there and they saw all these different nations and these huge delegations. But they did extremely well. And we want to celebrate them because they medals. All of those children medalled.”

Today, the small delegation of six was scheduled to return to the Jewel where their accomplishments would have been celebrated with a motorcade from the P.G.I.A., through the principal streets of the city and end at Stella Maris School. But that did not happen and instead, the team is stuck in New York. Shantel Yearwood, the secretary for the Special Olympics Belize Board, explains what happened.

Shantel Yearwood

“We prepared and we organized a motorcade for them today, but because of some unforeseen circumstances regarding the cancelation of their flight, we will not have the motorcade today. We will have it, but just not today. They were bumped off their flight from United Airlines and so we are working really hard right now to get them back in the country because these children are graduating on the twenty-ninth. We need them here, so that’s another celebration for them. So we are trying everything that we can possibly do. Even if we can’t get to United Airlines right now to get them on that flight, we are trying to reach out to another airline.”

…and so, all efforts are being made to get the athletes back to Belize before their graduation on June twenty-ninth.

Shantel Yearwood

“It is indeed extremely costly and they are ready to come home. They are tired, they are physically tired. These children had to get up early in the morning; they were faced with conditions that they are not used to in Belize. They had to catch trains. Even going, they had delayed flights. So they are absolutely physically drained and emotionally ready to meet their families and their families are also ready to receive them.”

Duane Moody for News Five.