Sailing Athlete John Corley
Location: Cranfield, near Milton Keynes, Bedfordshire
John is 64 years old. He became involved with Special Olympics 8 years ago through Otis, the company he worked for as a contracts manager. Otis has been a major supporter of SOGB. John has been a volunteer at number of competitions including world games.
John says: “I had done a sailing course 10 years before and I was lured into Special Olympics by the promise of free sailing lessons!”
John has done a lot of fundraising for the sailing squad by competing in running events around the world. He has run 5 marathons in 4 countries, Rome, London, Berlin and Paris. He started late as a runner, inspired by Special Olympics athletes.
John says: “I watched the marathon runners at the Special Olympics world games in Carolina. There were runners with not just learning disabilities but physical disabilities and that was so inspiring. I realised what achievement was.”
John competed in his first marathon to mark his 60th birthday. Last year’s marathon was a celebration of his recovery after treatment from prostate cancer, when he raised over £2,000 for Special Olympics.
The Special Olympics Sailing Team needs Unified Partners to team up with its Special Olympics athletes to learn and improve skills together. It was my first experience of working with people with learning disabilities. Before that I didn’t know anyone with a learning disability or even what it meant to have a learning disability.
I am learning to be a pretty average sailor but more importantly, I have found that a learning disability is only that. It doesn’t define the quality of the character, personality, skills and courage of the Athletes other than that he or she does not learn in the same way or as readily as other people do. Special Olympic Athletes may also have some degree of physical handicap. Nobody ever learnt to sail or ride a horse by being lectured at in a classroom. As sport generally, and sailing in particular, are activities that have to be learnt by experience in the field they are ideal ways for people with learning difficulties to achieve their personal best.
I have been a Volunteer at the Greater London Games and at two World Summer Games –Raleigh North Carolina in 1999, and, with my three adult children, at Dublin in 2003. We really appreciated just how hard volunteers had to work - 15 hours a day from two days before the opening of the Games until the closing ceremony. What was really impressed me was the way that the athletes, some with a range of physical as well as learning difficulties, performed in sports and at a level which most people without a learning or physical difficulty would find challenging.
My Special Olympics Sailing Partner of 8 years, John Hollingsworth, comes from Dagenham, London. We have sailed in the 1998 UK National Championships (Silver Medal), 2000 European Games in the Netherlands (Silver), 2002 Ireland National Games (Silver) and 2005 UK National Games in Glasgow (Bronze) where my partner, Ruth Hartley, also worked as a Volunteer.
Originally from Somerset, I now live at Cranfield, between Milton Keynes and Bedford where I work for Bedfordshire Pilgrims Housing Association. Currently my partner and I are busy trying to fundraise for the 2007 Shanghai Special Olympics where I will again be the Unified Partner of John Hollingsworth and Ruth will escort Joanne Shepherd also of the Special Olympics Sailing Team.
TO ARRANGE AN INTERVIEW WITH THE ATHLETES OR COACHES, PLEASE CONTACT THE SOGB NATIONAL OFFICE.
TELEPHONE: 020 7696 5569 OR EMAIL TO: pr@sogb.org.uk