Margaret van Betuw has been going to Moana Pool to train Special Olympics athletes every Wednesday since 1987.
It was all about inclusion and that was why she liked it, she said.
"The athletes just accept the way they are and accept everybody ... sport is played as people should play sport, they give it their all and it doesn’t matter if you win or lose.
"If you want to come, you come. If you don't want to come, that's fine — and there’s always room for more swimmers."
Ms van Betuw said she was working as a primary school teacher in 1987 when the father of one of her students — who had a job to either start up or to be a sports co-ordinator for the Special Olympics — asked her "what sport do you want to do?".
"I said ‘gymnastics or basketball’. He said ‘do gymnastics, that’s on a Friday night’, but I was far too
young to give up my Friday nights.
"So that’s how I got into swimming, because it’s always been on a Wednesday."
Almost four decades later, she is still at Moana Pool every Wednesday evening helping run the training sessions.
She said there were people in attendance she had known for years, and one person had been coming every week for the past 30 years, but there were also always new people to get to know.
Ms van Betuw said she did not know when she would stop running the sessions, but it definitely would not be in 2026.
About 1205 participants were expected to take part in this year’s Special Olympics 2025 National Summer Games in Christchurch.
The games would run from December 11 and 13.
Dunedin was due to send 80 athletes to the games.
One of the swimmers, Nina Newdick, said the Special Olympics gave her a "sense of belonging and sense of community".
"It makes me feel that I’m not alone in this ... it does definitely give purpose."
