Athletes tell President of anger over missing Games

PRESIDENT Mary McAleese met Special Olympics athletes from Hong Kong yesterday who failed to make it to the Games due to the SARS crisis.

At the start of her 10-day State visit to China, Mrs McAleese met with 44 athletes from the country and talked to them about the success of the Special Olympics in Ireland.

Due to the spread of the SARS epidemic in South East Asia earlier this year, the Hong Kong team was initially banned from travelling and eventually only half of them competed in the Games. After being in quarantine in Macau for several weeks, the 22 athletes who did travel went home with 51 medals.