For the first time, the world's largest inclusive sporting event took place in Germany - as the biggest sporting event since the 1972 Olympic Games. From June 17 to 25, the event in Berlin united people with and without intellectual disabilities in their enthusiasm for sport and shared experiences. More than 7,000 athletes from over 190 countries competed in 26 summer Olympic sports and celebrated sporting highlights together.
Sports venues throughout the city
Of the total of ten sites in Berlin and Brandenburg, the Olympiapark and Messe Berlin were the main venues. The sustainability and advantages of the existing infrastructure, venues and partnerships were also arguments why Berlin won the bid for the 2023 World Games in 2018. The Berlin Exhibition Grounds hosted the competitions in the disciplines of boccia, table tennis, badminton, power triathlon, judo, volleyball, basketball, rhythmic gymnastics and apparatus gymnastics.
From exhibition center to multi-sport facility
Event builder NUSSLI installed around 9000 grandstand seats in the form of 30 individual stands, which formed the appropriate spectator infrastructures for the various sports in 11 halls at Messe Berlin. They offered between 140 and 1450 spectator seats. Uli Born, Sales Manager of NUSSLI, says: "Our solution approach was to reduce the number of different grandstand layouts to a minimum without losing sight of the needs of the individual sports. By developing "only" seven grandstand layouts, we managed to pay tribute to tight budget constraints as well as reduce planning and logistics efforts, simplify assembly and standardize processes."
Media broadcasts all over the world
The competitions and highlights of the Special Olympics World Games were broadcast daily all over the world. Accordingly, the infrastructure for the approximately 1,500 media representatives on site was important. The NUSSLI project team installed six camera towers, which required a special solution due to the hall floor. This is because the hall floor rests on a steel support grid and is caused to vibrate by strong audience movements. To ensure wobble-free images, these vibrations had to be prevented from being transmitted to the camera towers, which are up to seven meters high. For this reason, the towers were founded under the lifting floor on the concrete subsoil 45 centimeters below and precisely aligned.
Short transport routes
It took only ten days to set up the infrastructure and six days to dismantle it. Careful coordination of the trades involved made it possible to work in the various halls overlapping in time and to minimize waiting times. Logistics played a key role in terms of efficiency and sustainability. A large part of the 460 tons of system material was delivered by 27 semitrailer trucks from the Ludwigsfelde plant, which is only 24 kilometers away, thus ensuring a significantly lower carbon footprint for the construction site. On the extensive exhibition grounds, the material then reached the respective hall in an optimized manner - either directly from the truck or with suitable means of transport such as heavy-duty platform trailers. Time-consuming and environmentally harmful journeys with individual pallets could thus be minimized.
