{"id":92429,"date":"2026-05-29T06:40:46","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T04:40:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/specialolympics.ch\/blog\/2026\/05\/29\/ceremonial-and-emotional\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T06:41:27","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T04:41:27","slug":"ceremonial-and-emotional","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/soswi.compresso.website\/en\/blog\/2026\/05\/29\/ceremonial-and-emotional\/","title":{"rendered":"Ceremonial and emotional"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>The National Summer Games Zug 2026 are open. <\/strong><br\/>What an opening! Amid thunderous applause, the 119 delegations marched into the OYM hall in Zug. A truly moving moment for both the audience and the athletes. Christa Rigozzi and Nik Hartmann hosted the evening with great warmth and presence.   <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The most prominent guest was Federal Councillor Martin Pfister, who addressed some personal words to the athletes in a heartfelt interview with Games Ambassador Fabienne Villiger. These Games are particularly close to his heart, as he served as president of the local organizing committee before his appointment to Bern. <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One special moment followed another: the hoisting of the Special Olympics flag, the anthem sung live by Jenny Schr\u00f6der, and the athletes&#8217; oath in multiple languages. The Games were officially opened with the lighting of the &#8220;Flame of Hope.&#8221; <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Finally, Marc Sway ensured a fantastic atmosphere in the hall with &#8220;Es chunnt eso wies chunnt&#8221; and a live concert.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now, the sporting action continues: In the coming days, around 1600 athletes will compete for medals in 16 sports. In parallel, the Olympic Village invites everyone to participate and celebrate with a diverse supporting program. <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You can find more information about the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zug2026.ch\/de\/sportprogramm\">sports<\/a> here and about the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zug2026.ch\/de\/rahmenprogramm\">supporting program<\/a> here.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wearepepper.ch\/de\/db\/specialolympics\/2675\">Photos will be uploaded here<\/a> each evening during the Games.<br\/>(Photo credit: WeArePepper\/photographer\u2019s name)<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/soswi.compresso.website\/en\/start-and-ranking-lists-nsg-2026\/\">You will find the start and ranking lists here.<\/a><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Follow us on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/specialolympicsswitzerland\/\">Instagram<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/soswi.compresso.website\/\">Facebook<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/special-olympics-switzerland?trk=public_post_feed-actor-name&amp;originalSubdomain=ch\">LinkedIn<\/a> so you don&#8217;t miss any of the emotions.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The videos will be available on our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@specialolympicsswitzerland\">YouTube channel<\/a> after the Games<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The National Summer Games Zug 2026 are open. What an opening! Amid thunderous applause, the 119 delegations&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":92430,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_seopress_news_disabled":"","_seopress_video_disabled":"","_seopress_video":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas_manual":[],"_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable_all":"","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas":[],"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[220],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-national-games-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/soswi.compresso.website\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/soswi.compresso.website\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/soswi.compresso.website\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/soswi.compresso.website\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/soswi.compresso.website\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92429"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/soswi.compresso.website\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92431,"href":"https:\/\/soswi.compresso.website\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92429\/revisions\/92431"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/soswi.compresso.website\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/soswi.compresso.website\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/soswi.compresso.website\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/soswi.compresso.website\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}