Heike Naujoks is a kind of Primož Roglič of the Special Olympics World Games. Born in Thuringia, she began her sporting career as a winter sportswoman - similar to the current winner of the Giro d'Italia from Slovenia, who gained his first sporting successes as a ski jumper. At the World Games for people with intellectual disabilities, however, Naujoks is now very successful in cycling. After a gold medal in the road race in Abu Dhabi in 2019, she won silver at the current Games in Berlin - and has two more medal chances. She hopes that the momentum of the Special Olympics will provide better training and competition opportunities for athletes like her - even beyond the Games.
Special Olympics Berlin: German team over the moon
The German national cycling team was very excited. Heike Naujoks came out of the last bend of the women's 15 kilometre road race at the Brandenburg Gate in second place. The quadriga on the gate did not inspire her enough to catch the leading Manar Al-Alawi from Kuwait; after all, she is already 54 years old. But she held on to second place. "I worked my way up from fifth place. The others are much younger, so I can't get away that quickly. But in the end it was enough," she says proudly at the finish. "A great race, a wonderful atmosphere. People were cheering us on everywhere," she says, describing her first impressions.
The road cycling competitions at the World Games in Berlin are indeed something very special. The Straße des 17. Juni is cordoned off for the athletes for a whole week. They fight out their final battles for position on the course in front of the Reichstag before turning the last corner in front of the Brandenburg Gate and sprinting towards the Victory Column with the Quadriga behind them. Many people stand along the route at the Special Olympics. Some of them are just waiting to cross the road to get to the glass dome of the Reichstag. But even they are cheered on by those standing at the side of the track with clapping cards.
Opening of the Special Olympics with political celebrities
Before that, the route passes Bellevue Palace, the seat of Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Steinmeier officially opened the World Games on Saturday. Half the cabinet, from Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Interior Minister Nancy Faeser to the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, Claudia Roth, was represented in the Olympic Stadium. The presence of the celebrities, but also the positive feedback that the Games have received from the Berlin population, gives rise to the hope that acceptance of athletes with intellectual disabilities and people with disabilities in general will continue to grow.
"Unfortunately, I only have one or two competitions a year on my bike. I would like to have more competition experience," says Heike Naujoks. She is an athlete who takes cycling very seriously. She even has a bike that was specially made for her by the manufacturer Giant. "We actually wanted a second-hand bike for me. But then Giant built one completely customised to my body measurements," she explains. This is still quite rare in cycling for people with intellectual disabilities. The search for the right frame is often quite arduous.
13 competitions in three categories
"Here you can see the bike of our athlete Elena Bergen," says head coach Martin Weber as we walk together through the large tent in which the bikes of all the participants are lined up. 187 athletes are taking part in a total of 13 competitions in three categories. The time trials range from 500 metres to ten kilometres and the road races from 5 to 25 kilometres. Elena Bergen's bike is one of the smallest here in the tent, as Bergen is of small stature. "When we went to the dealer looking for a bike for her, he leafed through the catalogues and actually came across a model that might fit. And then he realised: 'Oh, God, there are only three of these in the whole of Germany. We have to order that really quickly'."
And so Weber did. He looks after Bergen at the inclusive sports club TSV Mosbach. There are still very few sports clubs in Germany that are committed to inclusion. Weber regrets this. And he hopes that "the Special Olympics will give us all a boost and promote inclusion," he says.
More attention
Fellow coach Oliver Zöbisch, who also works at an inclusive sports club, feels the same way. At Inklusiver Sportverein Norderstedt, Zöbisch even works in the opposite direction. The club started out as a centre for Special Olympics athletes and gradually opened up to athletes without disabilities. Above all, he hopes that race organisers will introduce categories for Special Olympics. "It's a huge effort for us to find courses that can be closed. There are amateur races in Germany, road races and circuit races as well as small amateur tours, where you could perhaps offer a part for Special Olympics," says Zöbisch. A Memorandum of Understanding between the International Cycling Union (UCI) and the Special Olympics was at least adopted during the World Games. In it, UCI President David Lappartient promised more attention for inclusion and also better access to the World Cycling Centre in Aigle for athletes with disabilities.
Special Olympics athletes are tested in everyday life anyway. Zöbisch's cycling group trains in normal road traffic. And Heike Naujoks usually gets on her bike all by herself in Thuringia to do her laps. In winter, she straps skis under her feet. "I specialise in the classic style and was the best classic skier in the world for a while. Unfortunately, that didn't help because the skaters are faster and they aren't categorised separately," she says. This is another reason why she has been trying her hand at cycling for a few years now. She continues to pedal in the same way.
