A group of students from the University of Hertfordshire will be teaming up with six athletes with intellectual disabilities to compete at the 2023 Special Olympics in Berlin.

Five current students and members of the Special Olympics Great Britain team will together form the Unified Football team.

Unified Football is a concept unique to its global community that sees athletes with and without intellectual disabilities play together on the same team in a seven-a-side format.

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In November last year, five athletes from the Special Olympics Essex club and one from Special Olympics St Albans were announced as the first members of the Unified Football Team that will compete at Berlin 2023 in June.

Yesterday (April 6), the five Unified Partners have been announced as University of Hertfordshire students - Daniel Famosa, Adeyinka Adewale, Al Maxin, Hayden Miller, and Alan Thomas.

The Special Olympics GB Unified Football team, which is being supported on its journey to Berlin 2023 by the League Managers Association, will play a minimum of five games at the Special Olympics World Games.

The squad form part of a delegation of more than 80 athletes with intellectual disabilities who will represent Team Special Olympics Great Britain in 17 sports.

Jenny Jones, subject group lead for the Institute of Sport at the University of Hertfordshire, said: “We are thrilled that five of our students have been selected as Unified Partners in the team.

"I know they will have a fantastic experience, not only attending the games in Berlin, but getting immersed in unified sports and all that it offers.

                                                                                                        

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“At the University of Hertfordshire, we are firm believers in making sport and physical activity accessible to all, so I am delighted that we can play our part in one of the most inclusive sporting initiatives in the country.

"We’re looking forward to welcoming the whole team to the university for their training – and especially to our new Institute of Sport, where we’ll be offering full use of the facilities to support the team’s preparation for this unique global event.

“We’ll all be following their journey to the World Games in June and wish the team every success.”