December 2016 Friendly Reminders:

1. Delegation Travel Itinerary forms: There are still some Delegations that have not returned the Delegation Travel Itinerary form. We kindly ask you to send us the missing forms as soon as possible to delegation.service@austria2017.org, including the flight number and the number of people arriving. It is necessary that your Delegation arrives and departs from the airport you have been notified by the GOC. We wish to bring to your attention that you have to bear all cost for the transfers from and to the airport, if this is not the case.

2. Letter of Invitation: (For Delegation members who need an Austrian Visa) In order to enable us to support you with your Austrian Visa Application, we kindly ask you to send us following information for your invitation letter: name, gender, date of birth, passport number, expire date of passport and role (e.g. athlete, HOD, coach) of all persons who need a visa; as well as all additional information, which needs to be included in your invitation letter, therefor you will find the form attached. In the invitation letter we will indicate, that during your visit you will be staying at a hotel in Graz, Schladming or Ramsau. All on-site costs, including accommodations, local transportation, insurance and meals will be covered by the Games Organizing Committee. We are not able to support you in the Visa Application Procedure if the information mentioned above is not complete and we kindly requestes you to forward the needed information by December 20th, 2016 via mail to delegation.service@austria2017.org.

#10. Delegation Update

Opening and Closing Ceremony: Again we wish to bring to your attention, that the Opening and Closing Ceremony will be held outdoors. During the month of March Schladming will feature a cool climate with roughly -5 to 15 degrees Celsius / 23 to 59 degrees Fahrenheit. In Graz the temperatures will be mild during the daytime with roughly between 5 and 15 degrees Celsius / 51 and 59 degrees Fahrenheit. Therefore please bring proper clothes and shoes for these temperatures and dress accordingly.

Insurance / General Liability: early arrival or late departure The insured parties are the officially credentialed participants. The participants who are covered by the insurance are: GOC and SOI staff, registered volunteers, official Delegations (HOD, A-HOD, AS-Staff, Coaches, Athletes, Unified Partners), Youth-Summit Participants and Global Messengers. General liability coverage will be in place from March 14th, 2017 (00:00) to March 25th, 2017 (24:00). For early arrival or late departure the Delegation will be charged 5 Euros per person per day for additional coverage.

Transportation of sports equipment by DB Schenker: Schenker & Co AG is the official forwarder at the fairground Graz and partner of Messe Center Graz, where the SOWWG 2017 will take place. Schenker & Co AG offers transports (land transports, sea freight, air freight, and special transports), storage, custom clearance (import, export) and logistics. There is a special on-site handling tariff, which is valid for all services done by the forwarder in the course of moving goods to and from the exhibition site in Graz. For further information please contact Mr. Marcel Schuster: SCHENKER & CO AG - Sports Events Alte Poststrasse 452, A-8055 Graz Phone: +43 5 7686 231 525 E-Mail: marcel.schuster@dbschenker.com

Laundry Services There will be a laundry service in Graz for all Athletes of Floorball and Floor Hockey, which will be available for the uniforms only and free of charge

For the other sports there will be the possibility for laundry services in the majority of the hotels or in the laundry nearby on your own cost.

Sport

Figure Skating & Speed Skating: Sharpening of the Skates There will be no possibility of sharping the Speed Skates at the SOWWG 2017 in Austria. All Team have to bring their own equipment for all reason and preparation. We are kindly asking for Acknowledgement and apologize for any inconvenience. Cross Country Skiing – 4 x 1Km Relay In order to get accurate times for divisioning, it will be required that athletes not registered in the 1K event be placed in a 1K time trial for divisioning purposes. For example, if Athlete X is currently registered for the 2.5 K, 5K and 4x1Km relay. Athlete X will also have to participate in the 1K time trial for divisioning purposes only. Swiss Ladder System - Floor Hockey & Floorball - First Round – Drawing For the first time, an exciting draw was performed during the October HOD conference selecting the first matches in Floorball and Floor Hockey at the SOWWG 2017 Please find attached the Drawing List for the first matches in Floorball and Floor Hockey at the SOWWG 2017.

Floorball - Date: March 17th, 2017,

Traditional Round Robin Court 1

Traditional Round Robin

Court 2

Unified Round Robin Court 3

Time Team Team Team Team Team Team

8:30 a.m. Austria 3 Singapore Germany Cote d’Ivorie

Bharat (female)

Cote d’Ivorie

8:45 a.m. Azerbaijan Czech

Republic Gibraltar Sweden Namibia (female)

Burkina Faso

9:00 a.m. Finland Austria 2 Bharat (male)

Baharat (female) Nigeria Mongolia

9:15 a.m. Latvia Austria 4 Cyprus Norway Serendib Bharat (male)

9:30 a.m. Russia Ireland 2 Uruguay Venezuela Ghana Namibia (male)

9:45 a.m. Switzerland 2

Switzerland 1 Argentina Isle of Man Indonesia Mexico

10:00 a.m. Estonia Denmark Israel Austria 1 10:15 a.m. Ireland 1 Croatia

Floor Hockey - Date: March 17th, 2017,

Traditional Round Robin Court 1

Traditional Round Robin

Court 2

Unified Round Robin Court 3

Time Team Team Team Team Team Team 8:30 a.m. Nigeria Lithuania Costa Rica St. Lucia Uganda USA (NY)

8:45 a.m. Sweden Kenya Trinidad + Tobago

Jamaica Tunisia Bangladesh (male)

9:00 a.m. Poland Algeria Nippon USA (South California)

Bangladesh (female) Russia

9:15 a.m. Hungary Spain Mexico South Africa

China Cuba

9:30 a.m. Baharat (male)

Austria 1 Canada (east)

Ukraine Korea Iran

9:45 a.m. Bharat (female) Cyprus Hong Kong UAE

10:00 a.m. Canada (west) Morocco

Chinese Taipei Nigeria

10:15 a.m. Egypt FAMILY PROGRAM

TRANSPORT

In order to help families to organize their transport on arrival as well as during the games, please find below a list of transport possibilities and their cost: Buses www.flixbus.at only online reservation! Stations / From To Duration Price

Schladming* Graz

Graz Schladming*

2 h 20 min from 8,-- Euro

Salzburg Schladming*

Schladming* Salzburg

1 h 20 min from 7,-- Euro

Wien Graz

Graz Wien

2 h 25 min from 9,-- Euro

Wien Schladming*

Schladming* Wien

4 h 35 min from 32,70 Euro

Wien Salzburg

Salzburg Wien

2 h 19 min from 32,50 Euro

Schladming: arrival and departure are at/from Lendplatz

Trains www.oebb.at

Stations / From To Duration Price

Graz Salzburg

Salzburg Graz

3 h 59 min from 48,80 Euro

Schladming Graz

Graz Schladming

2 h 22 min from 32,00 Euro

Graz Wien

Wien Graz

2 h 32 min from 37,30 Euro

Schladming Wien

Wien Schladming

4 h 30 min from 50,40 Euro

Wien Salzburg

Salzburg Wien

2 h 22 min from 52,90 Euro

Frequency: approx. every two hours Airport transfers with taxi

Airport Wien – City center: about 25,-- Euro www. totaltaxi.at Tel: +43 (0)664 250 5005 Airport Graz – City center: about 28,-- Euro www.taxi2801.at Tel: +43 (0)316 28 01 www.878.at Tel: +43 (0) 316 878 Transport from Schladming to Salzburg airport Prices per Transer: 130,-- Euro per(2 pax), 140,-- (3-5 pax), 160,-- (6-8 pax) Transport from Schladming to Wien airport 400,-- Euro 350,-- Euro (2 pax), 380,-- Euro (3-5 pax), 430,-- Euro (6-8 pax) Transport from Schladming to Graz airport 290,00Euro 250,-- Euro (2 pax), 280,-- Euro (3-5 pax), 320,-- Euro (6-8 pax) 10% savings for Special Olympics (please inform the driver) www.hechl.at Tel: +43 (0)664 883 32 750 Taxi Thaler Tel: +43 (0) 664 531 26 65 sportpension.thaler@rohrmoos.at CAR RENTAL

www.europcar.at 20% savings on car rental and 10% on van/truck-hire based on the daily rates. Contact person : kerstin.hutter@europcar.at Tel.: +43 (0)1 866 161633 E-mail: reservations@europcar.at

SIGHTSEEING

Family Tour “Imperial Austria” from March 12th-17th is now confirmed with 20 participants Families who are interested in this tour still have the possibility to register. Please note that the tour will be guided in English. The program for more activities for the family members during the games in Schladming, Ramsau and Graz is now available on our homepage:

http://www.austria2017.org/en/be-part-of-it/familien/sightseeing/program-during-the-games

HONORED GUEST PROGRAM

Please remember that the registration deadline for the Honored Guest Program is the 27th of January, 2017. If you plan to send one or more Honored Guests to the Games, please be sure to register them as soon as possible. Each Special Olympics Program is responsible itself for sending out the official Honored Guest invitation to their Program Honored Guest participants and also obtaining theirresponses. Once your guests have responded to your Program, you must send the confirmed names to Caitriona Dunne (Cdunne@specialolympics.org) who will then issue the individual registration links for further steps that must be taken to complete the process. Thank you for your cooperation.

Deadlines:

December 20th, 2016 Delivering of the details for your invitation letters. January 31st, 2017 Last day for delegations to request changes.

Before then any change in a delegation must be gender specific and sports specific (gender for gender and sports for sports). After January 31st a delegation may be allowed to change a coach / delegate, if it effects the safety of the delegation.

Should you need any further information, please do not hesitate to contact the GOC.

Delegation Service

delegation.service@austria2017.org

Tel: +43664/883 15 557

All of us join wishing you a happy holiday season, a very merry Christmas and best wishes for a Happy New Year.