While we – and the world – focused on the Olympic Games in Paris last month, two North Harbour athletes had their sights focused on representing New Zealand at the Special Olympics World Winter Games (WWG) in Torino in 2025 – the biggest world sports event to be held next year. Cosmo Adams and Marc Enderle have been selected in snowboarding and alpine skiing respectively, but as Christine Young discovered, they have more to do to get there than simply being selected to attend.
For Cosmo and Marc, it’s the opportunity of a lifetime. After hiatus of seven or eight years due to Covid, WWG will welcome approximately 13,000 athletes with intellectual disabilities over nine days of competition next March. More than 80 countries will be represented, with athletes supported by 7,000 coaches/managers, around 20,000 parents and supporters, and thousands of local Italian volunteers who will run the event.
Cosmo and Marc are two of ten New Zealand athletes selected, with the team accompanied by a head of delegation, a team doctor and four coaches, two of whom are also from North Harbour.
While the Paralympics are for elite disabled athletes, Special Olympics is more about participation for athletes with intellectual disabilities, says Cosmo’s father Mark Adams. However, he adds, while the emphasis is on inclusion, to be selected for the world games, athletes have to have won medals at national level. In the case of snow sports, this is at the annual snow sports competition at Cardrona, as part of the New Zealand Special Olympics snow sports programme. Cosmo and Marc both won medals at last year’s event, following their winter season training programme (for the Auckland athletes) hosted by Snowplanet.
Thirty-seven year old Marc says he has been involved with Special Olympics for many years, and has attended “at least five snow camps, something I treasure very much. It’s the highlight of my year.”
He also has a number of other interests. “Apart from snow sports I also play basketball…. In my spare time I like watching rugby, cricket, movies and wild life documentaries. Sometimes I play a round of golf with my father.” His hobby is wood-turning and he has completed a number of model ships.
Thirty year old Cosmo lives in Takapuna. “Special Olympics has been a part of most of my life, and I enjoy athletics, football basketball and snow sports. I love being outdoors and on the snow. Going to Torino would be so unreal!”
Cosmo, his father Mark says, is also actively involved in kayak fishing (he has his own channel, Cosmo Line, on You Tube), plays basketball and has been a keen skateboarder and surfer, as well as training and working as a barista. He took up snowboarding after winning a job as a waiter at Snow Planet. That job was disestablished as Snow Planet underwent renovations, but Cosmo’s enthusiasm for snowboarding remains, and Snowplanet sponsors his access to the slopes. He has been to the last three snow camps at Wanaka.
Mark Adams says the lives of young people with intellectual disabilities are constrained in many ways, “so if there are interesting and exciting opportunities, we encourage them to go for it”. ‘Going for it’ is an Adams family affair. Mark and his wife Jac have been actively involved in North Harbour Special Olympics for many years. The club offers a wide range of sports from a comprehensive swimming programme, to horse riding, basketball and golf. Mark has assisted with coaching and fundraising over the years and is leading the charge in fundraising for the Torino games, while Jac, who established the Greenhithe Special Olympics club 20 years ago to provide opportunities for younger children, is also on the North Harbour Special Olympics fundraising committee. Their daughter and son-in-law coach basketball at Greenhithe, while Mark coaches basketball at North Harbour. “I coach the least able athletes,” he says, “while Cosmo’s team has a very experienced coach who offers his time.”
Steve Westcott, one of the two North Harbour coaches travelling with the team, describes himself as “a relative newcomer to Special Olympics” after 16 years’ involvement as a snow sports coach. Like Mark, he became involved through his son, who is autistic. He helps run the snow sports programme at Snowplanet, plus the annual South Island ski camp. He has also coached table tennis and is currently the North Harbour Special Olympics golf manager/coach. He’s also on the North Harbour snow sports sub-committee.
“When I got involved in Special Olympics, I'd never really considered volunteering and never thought I'd have the patience to teach. But I have found it’s one of the most rewarding things I do.”
He enjoys being a coach/volunteer to the athletes. “The neuro-diverse spectrum is just that, so many differing variations; athletes with many different disabilities. I've found it’s just a case of talking to each athlete and listening to them. Some aren't very communicative, but just by chatting away, they tend to open up about something that interests them. I also tend to use a lot of humour and generally mess around with them; they all like the attention and someone who's willing to listen. On the slopes, they mostly learn by visualisation; doing and showing is usually the best form of teaching communication.”
For Steve, the rewards are “seeing athletes taking part and watching their smiles. I've coached athletes who had never been on skis before, who go on to attend world winter games…. But I've got athletes who still ski the same way today, despite 16 years of working with them. At the end of the day, as long as they are safe, happy and enjoying themselves, it doesn't matter.”
Travelling with the team will be similar to being on the annual camps in the South Island, he adds. “Most of the athletes that go to WWG have to have a level of self-sufficiency to be able to cope being away for a long time in an unusual environment. But it’s about ensuring they have a good time, reassuring them, and remaining calm if things do go wrong, as they need to feel safe and they need a sense of surety when things may not feel safe. Also, it’s often about organising them and their personal effects, such as making sure they are properly dressed and have gloves, googles etc when heading to the slopes.”
Special Olympics is also a family commitment for Grant Haskell, the other North Harbour coach travelling to Torino. “We ‘found’ Special Olympics,” he says, “when we (my wife Jane and I and our three daughters, including Tessa who has an intellectual disability) saw a group of skiers wearing yellow vests skiing around the mountain at Cardrona. We sought them out – this was the South Island Special Olympics group. Along with the athletes, we met a wonderful bunch of volunteers doing a fantastic job and having fun. On returning to Auckland, we got in touch with the Special Olympics North Harbour branch and Tess joined in swimming, basketball, athletics… pretty much whatever was on offer. Tessa was chosen to go to a World Winter Games in Boise, Idaho, in 2009, and we attended as family supporters, where we observed the team management and decided that we would like to make ourselves available for any roles that came up.”
Grant was an accountant “for a short time” before becoming a builder for most of his career. He also owned several businesses, and was the treasurer for Special Olympics North Harbour from 2012 until recently. Both Jane and Grant are ski instructors, and he is an Adaptive ski instructor. Jane travelled as a coach in 2013 to Korea. Grant first travelled with a team to Austria in 2017 and was to be head of delegation in 2021 before the games were cancelled due to Covid. “Snowsport has been our main sport with Special Olympics,” he says. “However, we have been volunteers with swimming and basketball and I have been a Unified Golf partner (where an athlete plays with a golfing partner).”
He is now retired (“from paid employment”) and his official role for WWG 2025 is ski coach and deputy head of delegation. “We all do everything required to make the trip a success. Some of our athletes have medical issues along with their cognitive disabilities and part of our role is to deal with these known difficulties. We rely heavily on parents or caregivers to enlighten us with strategies to manage these.”
Like Mark, he emphasises that the athletes are not ‘elite’ or ‘high performance’ as in mainstream sports; “they are chosen to give them an opportunity to participate and compete against athletes of similar abilities. Special Olympics’ creed is ‘Let me win, but if I cannot win let me be brave in the attempt’. The goal is to showcase the skills and accomplishments of people with intellectual disabilities on a global stage, an international demonstration of inclusion, acceptance and unity.”
North Harbour Special Olympics tries to ensure that people can “do things they wouldn’t be able to do normally”, says Mark. The club consists of "people rather than premises”, so basketball takes place at Northcross Intermediate, for example, and athletics is at AUT Millennium. The North Harbour club is egalitarian, he adds. “We support everyone and make attending activities not dependent on the athlete’s parents being wealthy.”
Which means that for North Harbour Special Olympics, selection of local athletes is just the start. To attend the games, each athlete has to pay their own costs and their share of the cost of the travelling coaches, all of whom, like Grant and Steve, are volunteers. It’s a tall ask, amounting to around $30,000 per athlete. Each receives a small contribution from the Special Olympics Upper North Island Trust. Some clubs rely on individual families to pay, but North Harbour’s egalitarian spirit encompasses an ethos of spreading the load, and it fundraises collectively for opportunities such as WWG.
To get fundraising under way, North Harbour set up a “WWG Lotto” in late May. It isn't a huge money-spinner, Mark admits, with potential to raise around $3000 once prizes are given out, but it has helped draw attention to the fundraising need. There’s also a Givealittle page (https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/cosmo-and-marc-to-torino), and the club has run a sausage sizzle at Mitre 10 in Glenfield. Pub quizzes, soliciting direct donations and other events are also planned. “We’re looking for ideas and support,” says Mark, who’s been meeting with community and business leaders to tease out any new avenues and ideas. Benefitz, publisher of Channel Magazine, has been assisting with printing promotional flyers and signage.
Special Olympics North Harbour has just six months to raise the necessary funds. In the meantime, the coaches take on a much larger role than simply sports coaching. “We have a team camp at Wanaka in early August to get to know each other and do some on-mountain training,” says Grant. “Both on this camp and on the WWG trip, it is a 24/7 role and the management team covers all bases: mum, dad, tour guide, mentor, ski instructor, friend. The role involves preparing the athletes for the trip, encouraging them to keep their fitness up and helping with their knowledge of travelling, as some of our athletes have never travelled.
“It is a phenomenally rewarding role, and it is great to see the personal growth of the athletes that go on these life changing experiences. We all return shattered but ecstatic.”
You can support the North Harbour Special Olympians by donating directly to Special Olympics North Harbour’s bank account: 12-3087-0088132-53 (ref: WWG; Detail: Donation). Or contact northharbour@specialolympics.org.nz with fundraising suggestions or support. Every little helps – and it means so much to the athletes.
