In the days leading up to the sold-out Opening Ceremony for Los Angeles’s biggest sporting event in more than 30 years, Westfield Century City rolled out the red carpet for some of the 6,500 Special Olympics athletes competing in 25 sports from 177 countries.
Honoring the 6,500 athletes and 2,000 coaches arriving in the city of Angels from all over the world, Westfield Century City hosted a dinner following the end of the torch run in West Hollywood with athletes, local law enforcement officials, and supporters in the center’s dining terrace on Wednesday, July 22. A lunch was also hosted on July 23 for 91 delegates from Special Olympics Gibraltar and Monaco.
Westfield, a globalized retail destination with 40 shopping centers in the U.S. and U.K, supported the 2015 Special Olympics World Games, the world’s largest sporting and humanitarian event this year, through multiple events at select Southern California centers.
To celebrate the largest event to come to Los Angeles since the 1984 Olympic Games, various Westfield centers hosted Torch Ceremonies for the Law Enforcement Torch Run Final Leg for the LA2015 Special Olympics World Games, as well as dinners and presentations for several delegations who are staying at World Games Host Towns in surrounding areas in the days leading up to the World Games Opening Ceremony on Saturday, July 25.
“Westfield takes great pride in its longstanding relationship with Special Olympics Southern California, helping raise significant funds that enable the organization to enrich the lives of over 17,000 Southern California athletes, their families and communities, through the power of sports, education, and athlete health,” Westfield said in a statement. “In 2014, more than 70 Westfield employees and their families volunteered their time for the annual Pier del Sol event, which over Westfield’s 18-year sponsorship history has helped to raise more than $7.3 million for the athletes of Special Olympics Southern California.”
The Opening Ceremony was held Saturday, July 25 in the historic Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, site of the 1932 and 1984 Olympic Games, got underway with Frist Lady Michelle Obama officially opening the event to a crowd of 62,338 people. The nearly 3 1/2-hour ceremony also began with a videotaped welcome by President Barack Obama.
Mayor Eric Garcetti briefly welcomed the athletes to Los Angeles following the parade of nations.
“Our city is home to every culture, every language and every nationality,” Garcetti said. “Welcome home. You’re in Los Angeles.”
Talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, actress Eva Longoria and former California first lady Maria Shriver were among the other speakers. Shriver’s late mother, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, founded the Special Olympics, athletic competitions for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, in 1968.
The closing ceremony will be held Aug. 2 at the Coliseum.
For more information, visit www.specialolympics.org.
