In a special report on the Special Olympics team travelling to Athens in the summer, we profile our very own Oliver Boyle.
Oliver Boyle from Portnoo is one of the 126 athletes who will represent Ireland at the 2011 Special Olympics World Summer Games. The Games will run from the 25th June to 4th July 2011 in Athens, Greece.
Oliver will compete in 11-a-side football at the Games and is currently busy training and preparing for the Games. He has been involved with Special Olympics since 1986; however he took a break from 1993 to 2001 when he started back playing sport for Special Olympics. He is involved with the Donegal Football Special Olympics Club.
Oliver enjoys making friends throughout the country, learning new things in sports and helping others to better their game, travelling around Ireland playing football and being with his team.
This is not his first time to represent Ireland on the international sporting stage. He travelled to the 2007 Special Olympics World Summer Games in China where he won gold. He won gold for Ulster basketball in 2009.
Along with his team, he won division 2 twice, division 1 three times, national cup three times, shield once, FAI Cup 2008 and gold in the 2010 Special Olympics Ireland Games in Limerick.
A highlight for him was competing in the 2010 Special Olympics Ireland Game final between Ulster and Munster. The game ended up going to a shoot out with the outcome being Ulster winning 4-1 after a 1-1 draw.
Before joining Special Olympics again in 2001, Oliver was in the painting business and at the weekends worked as a bouncer for the Abbey Hotel in Donegal. Then one day, a friend of Oliver’s approached him to join the Donegal football team. This changed his life for the better. It got him back involved with Special Olympics again and back into training and meeting friends.
He is looking forward to travelling to Athens. It will give him the opportunity to see a different country, and to meet the Greeks. He is hoping to arrive back in Ireland with a gold medal. But most of all he is looking forward to walking out along with his team to represent Ireland.
His hobbies and interests include music, DVDs, travelling, Man United, Playstation, X-Box and reading. His favourite sporting hero is Eric Cantona (Man United) and Lionel Messi (Barcelona). He has many favourite songs but two in particular are “Purple Rain” by Prince and “Streets of Philadelphia” by Bruce Springsteen. His favourite actress is Megan Fox. His favourite television programmes are CSI and Shameless. His favourite films are Braveheart, Gladiator, Avatar, Rocky, The Terminator and Fast & Furious to name a few!
