Malta’s Jonathan Camilleri reacts while competing in the bocce event during the 2014 Special Olympics Games in Antwerp.

The 2014 Special Olympics European Summer Games host 2,000 athletes with intellectual disabilities from 58 countries.

For one-and-a-half weeks the athletes compete in events such as swimming, gymnastics, athletics and table tennis. Away from the sports, organisers also hold various events to discuss the status of people with disabilities in society.

The main aim of the games is to offer the competitors opportunities to develop physical fitness and to share moments of courage and joy with their families and other Special Olympics athletes and the community, organizers said.

Antwerp hosted the Summer Olympics of 1920.

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