Photo Credits: Freddie B. Photography™ The first day of the sports competition for the Special Olympic World Winter Games Austria 2017, the divisioning of the the teams from around the world. Divisioning is a unique system used by Special Olympics to give athletes of all ablities the chance for exciting competition and usually occurs before the start of the World Games competitions. What happens is that divisioning races, judge events, or short team matches are held to assess the athletes' or teams' ability levels in competition by team ratings or skill level. The athletes or teams are grouped into the divisions according to three criteria: gender, age and ability level., and there are a minimum of three and a maximum of eight athletes or teams in a division. The divisioning took place at all three different Special Olympic World Winter Games venues: Schladming, Ramsau, and Graz with the winter sports ranging from Cross Country & Alpine skiing to Figure & Speed Skating to Floor Hockey & Floorball, to Snowboarding and Snow Shoeing. As much as I wish I could be at all venues to capture the exciting pre-competition events of every sport, I reluctanly but necessarily had to chose one; the venues were several hours apart, and that was the floor hockey events at the convention center in the city of Graz. I spent the day witnessing teams warming up then excitedly pumping themselves...

Special Olympics teams were divisioned in Austria before the games. The Flame of Hope arrived in Graz, celebrated by many.

The first day of Sports Competition – Divisioning and the Arrival of the Flame of Hope in the city of Graz

 Photo Credits: Freddie B. Photography™    The first day of the sports competition for the Special Olympic World Winter Games Austria 2017, the divisioning of the the teams from around the world. Divisioning is a unique system used by Special Olympics to give athletes of all ablities the chance for exciting competition and usually occurs before the start of the World Games competitions. What happens is that divisioning races, judge events, or short team matches are held to assess the athletes' or teams' ability levels in competition by team ratings or skill level. The athletes or teams are grouped into the divisions according to three criteria: gender, age and ability level., and there are a minimum of three and a maximum of eight athletes or teams in a division. The divisioning took place at all three different Special Olympic World Winter Games venues: Schladming, Ramsau, and Graz with the winter sports ranging from Cross Country & Alpine skiing to Figure & Speed Skating to Floor Hockey & Floorball, to Snowboarding and Snow Shoeing.             As much as I wish I could be at all venues to capture the exciting pre-competition events of every sport, I reluctanly but necessarily had to chose one; the venues were several hours apart, and that was the floor hockey events at the convention center in the city of Graz. I spent the day witnessing teams warming up then excitedly pumping themselves...

The first day of Sports Competition – Divisioning and the Arrival of the Flame of Hope in the city of Graz

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The first day of Sports Competition – Divisioning and the Arrival of the Flame of Hope in the city of Graz

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The first day of Sports Competition – Divisioning and the Arrival of the Flame of Hope in the city of Graz

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