RIYADH, 27 February 2007 — Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, chairman of Kingdom Holding Company (KHC) awarded 22 cars to the Saudi Arabian Special Needs Soccer Team who won the 4th Special Olympics International Soccer Cup which took place last year in Germany.
The team members are part of the Saudi Sports Federation for Special Needs. The awards were presented to Prince Sultan ibn Fahd, president of the General Presidency of Youth Welfare (GPYW), to be distributed.
The awards will be distributed in a ceremony set for today after Isha prayers at the King Fahad Cultural Center in Riyadh.
Prince Alwaleed’s gesture comes in light of his generous and continuous support to local sports clubs and sports in general, and especially to members’ of the special needs sports clubs and organizations. In 2004 Prince Alwaleed was bestowed the 35th anniversary of the establishment of the Special Olympics award, given to him by the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Regional Managing Director Ayman Wahab.
In 2005, Prince Alwaleed distributed a total of SR150,000 in monetary rewards, bus and a pick-up truck to the Saudi Sports Federation for Special Needs.
His contribution was made to acknowledge the federation’s mentally challenged members’ achievements in the Special Olympics which took place in Ireland where the team won 10 gold medals and 1 silver medal.
The contribution also accredited the physically challenged members’ performance in the 2002 6th European Open Championships for weight lifting which took place in Slovakia, where the team had won 2 bronze medals.
