Georgian athletes mark maiden Special Olympics appearance with medal

Georgian olympic athletes made history last week after appearing at the Special Olympics World Winter Games in Austria for the first time and taking away a medal for their showing.

Seven competitors from Georgia featured at the games among over 2,500 athletes with disabilities and special needs from more than 100 countries.

The teams featured in the games were hosted from March 14-25 in Graz, Schladming-Rohrmoos and Ramsau — three locations in Austria's southeast state of Styria.

See highlights from the Special Olympics figure skating competition on March 21 below:

Competing in three of the nine disciplines at the event, Georgian contestants scored a number of high-ranking positions including a bronze medal in figure skating for 15-year old Mariam Oqropiridze.

Oqropiridze finished third in the singles section of free skating category on March 21, with another Georgian entrant, Ani Nodia, coming in 6th.

Figure skater Mariam Oqropiridze awarded her bronze medal at the olympics. Photo: Special Olympics/Strohmeier.

Oqropiridze and Nodia first took to ice for the first time last year, undergoing intensive training in the run-up to the olympics, said the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia.

Both young athletes entered the Georgian national team from Tbilisi’s Specialised School No. 200.

Oqropiridze competed in the March 21 figure skating discipline. Photo: Special Olympics/Vincetic.

The remaining five members of the team also coming from Georgian schools for pupils with specialised accessibility needs and disabilities.

The athletes of the Georgian team also competed in alpine skiing and snowshoeing at the Special Olympics.

Georgia's Ani Nodia finished sixth in the figure skating discipline on March 21. Photo: Special Olympics.

Running from March 14-25 in Graz, Schladming-Rohrmoos and Ramsau, the contest hosted thousands of family members and friends cheering for the athletes. Around 800 media representatives were also there to cover the olympics.

Organisers of the games said the tournament was designed to serve "the development of a new sports dimension where performance and athletic goals, regardless of abilities and skills, are individually defined”.