In the words of Kai Polefka, the difficult sounds easy. “You always have to see what the goalkeeper is doing,” he says. Then, with his arm stretched towards the ceiling, he imitates what he just managed to do: a lob, just before the end of the game, thrown almost from the baseline, with so much feeling in his left hand that the ball flew into the net in a high arc fell. The goalkeeper didn’t stand a chance.
When Polefka, 32, scores goals like this week in Berlin’s Olympiapark for the Durlach Turnados from Karlsruhe, it’s nothing unusual – he’s been doing it for years. The remarkable thing is rather: From now on more people should trust him and the people with mental disabilities in Germany with something like handball dream goals.
In 2023, the Special Olympics World Games will be held in Berlin for the first time in Germany, the World Games for people with intellectual disabilities – not to be confused with the Paralympics for people with physical disabilities. 7000 participants from 190 countries are expected next summer.
The national games, which take place in Berlin from Monday to Friday and are held alternately in summer and winter every two years, were a kind of test run for this. And they were much more than that, you could tell at the main train station when you saw lots of happy groups driving in the direction of the Olympic Stadium: like at a reunion party.
Reunion party: scene from the opening ceremony, with the Brandenburg Gate inflated in the stadium at the old forester’s.
(Photo: Christoph Soeder/dpa)
Sven Albrecht, Managing Director of Special Olympics Germany (SOD), had pointed out a lot of potential even before Corona: Only 40,000 of around half a million people with intellectual disabilities in Germany were doing organized sports there. How many fewer there are now is being raised, he says. But the effects are massive. He assumes a decline of up to 15 percent.
Albrecht compares the situation in facilities for the disabled during the pandemic with that in retirement homes, where there was hardly any exchange to protect against infection. Team sports in particular were affected. In addition, digital offers were rarely prepared in a way that was suitable for the disabled. The consequences: loneliness, health problems. The 2022 games, which also qualify for 2023, offered many teams the first opportunity to compete after a long break.
The capital has undertaken numerous inclusion projects
There’s a lot to do, for example in organized sport, which could open up more for people with disabilities – only about ten percent of the participants in Berlin came from clubs. Of course, hosting the World Games is a kind of economic stimulus package.
Albrecht says carefully that his association wants to “support and not demand too much”, rather make offers, such as further training for referees and referees. He also emphasizes the successes: The Berlin state sports association leads the Berlin SOD state association as a full member, which has so far been the exception rather than the rule in Germany. And the capital has undertaken numerous inclusion projects.
However, the World Games should not only concern Berlin: A so-called “Host Town Program” provides for cities and communities across the country to receive international delegations for four days. More than 200 take part: Jamaica’s team is then in Schwetzingen and Wiesloch, Turkey in Stralsund, Benin in Saarbrücken. And that’s where the Durlach Tornados come into play, Kai Polefka’s team: They are an example of what can happen from such encounters.
The goal in view: Kai Polefka in Berlin on the ball.
(Photo: Anna Spindeldreier/Special Olympics World Games/oh)
The national edition of the Special Olympics took place in Karlsruhe in 2008, and the district club TS Durlach was to make its hall available for overnight stays. “That’s when we first found out that there was something like Special Olympics,” says coach Sebastian Trondle. They wanted to do more than house athletes. “We had zero plan.” But they just tried.
According to Tröndle, they invited people with disabilities as spectators to a national league derby of the first handball team, and 150 came. At half-time they advertised the first training session. “And then there were 30, 40 people.”
It was important, he says, from the start to be financially independent in the club in order to prevent resentment. At first they didn’t even belong to the Durlach handball department, but that changed quickly. “The most difficult thing was teaching people that they don’t have a handicap,” says Trondle, adding that they can throw and catch a ball even with limitations. The Turnados are now known as role models in the scene.
Allowing people with intellectual disabilities to play is a question of attitude, says Durlach’s coach Tröndle
This time in Berlin they were the only club with three teams at the start: a team in which only athletes with disabilities play, a women’s team and one in the Unified competition, the inclusive flagship project of the Special Olympics: athletes with disabilities play together with so-called partners without disabilities. In Durlach, there are three handball players who came to the team through the club’s first women’s team.
In Berlin, the Unified team competed against Hungary’s national team, among others, and international delegations from 13 countries were there in preparation for 2023. Durlach lost 6:10. The Hungarian coach said afterwards: “We need games like this.” He was so enthusiastic about the handball level.
Durlach’s trainer Tröndle, 38, is a social worker, but he prefers not to discuss that at all. Allowing people with intellectual disabilities to play is a question of attitude, not a matter of training, he believes. After all, every e-youth has different characters. Tröndle is also the German national coach for Berlin 2023, but he still says that he would prefer it if there was no need for an association like Special Olympics: “Because I actually think that there must be an offer in every handball association.”
With the Turnados, there are players who have difficulties counting three steps in the game, but then bounce the ball while running. There are touching success stories. And there are players like Polefka, who also takes part in Durlach’s third men’s team.
Polefka works as a carpenter in a workshop for the disabled. As a teenager he went to a speech therapy boarding school, only then did he start playing handball. “Get better,” he says, is his aim, which is a worrying proposition for opposing goalkeepers. When you ask him what he likes about handball, the first thing he says is: “Community.”
He has already attended two World Games, in Los Angeles and Abu Dhabi. It is not yet clear whether he will be nominated for Berlin 2023. “If not,” he says, “I’ll go there anyway.” To cheer.