Manipal 13th Aug 2021.

Archana Jaivittal M.J from ASARE, a home for the specially challenged being run by ARCHANA Trust and Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), is all set to participate in the Special Olympics World Championship Dancesport 2021 at Graz, Austria. She will be the sole representative from India in this category. Archana is prepared for a 90-sec performance at the competition to be held on 19 & 20 Aug 2021, for the Classical- Solo category.

Over the past few years, she has been taking regular classes in Indian Classical (Bharat Natyam), and considering the pandemic scenario, she kept her training going keeping covid 19 restrictions in mind. Through her long journey within Special Olympics, Archana made India proud when she bagged a Bronze in Swimming at the SOAP Regional Games held in 2013. She continued to maintain swimming as her strength, under the guidance of Mr. Jagadish Shettar, Mr.  Prakash Poojary, and under the mentorship of the SO Bharat National Trainers, Mr. Sundaresh and Ms. Bharati Kothari. She repeated the feat in the Abu Dhabi World Games 2019 winning another Bronze. She is eager and confident for participating in this new category of Dancesport that has once again bought her in the spotlight. In 2015, she received the national award in the role model category by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities.

Archana leaves today for Graz, Austria that would welcome 80 Athletes from 13 nations at the first Special Olympics Dance Sport World Championship. Special Olympics Athletes will compete in four categories- Solo, Duo, Couples, and Teams within the four disciplines - Ballroom, Street dance, Performance Art, and Speciality. Dancesport, officially recognized by Special Olympics in 2019, is a unique sport that would increase the participation of the Athletes and the Unified partner experiences, encouraging more people to engage in