Smiles are success at Halberg Games

The Halberg Games has grown exponentially in the past decade, but the reason why young people converge at the unique inclusive national sports tournament remains the same.

The annual tournament, run by the Halberg Foundation, spans multiple days and is open to athletes aged between eight and 21-years-old with a physical disability or visual impairment.

Throughout the tournament, hundreds of athletes compete, socialise, eat and sleep on site at King's College in South Auckland.

Competing in regional teams in a wide range of sports including athletics, swimming, golf, gymnastics, wheelchair basketball, croquet, cycling, badminton, wheelchair rugby, powerchair football, rugby league, netball, rock climbing, skate sports, turbo touch, table tennis, ambulant football and adaptive cricket.

The Halberg Games marks 10 years under its current banner this week.

John Sigurdsson has been managing the Halberg Games since 2014, in the final year of when it was known as the Junior Disability Games, a time when the event was "much, much smaller in scale".

"It was called the Independence Games and then the Junior Disability Games and they were run and organised by family groups around the country, so they were really struggling to pull it all together through their connections or ability to gather enough funding or sponsorship, or just to make it a sustainable package," Sigurdsson said.

So the Halberg Foundation took over the event in 2015.

"I think the first year we might have had about 60 athletes, and it just grew steadily over the years to the point where we are now consistently over 200 and it does sneak up. It's over about 220 now." Sigurdsson said.

"The event has grown hugely, not only in participants, but in opportunities at the event as well. It used to be two and a half days it's now Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and there's even talk that that could grow in the future as well. We are limited by our resource, but we do acknowledge that the event is continuing to evolve and grow and we want to keep up and just find ways to make it work."

Participants gaining confidence is one of the biggest benefits of the Games according to Sigurdsson who is a senior manager for the Halberg Foundation.

"We just use sport as a vehicle to drive all of those really good social change messages and personal growth. And sport can do that. Sport, I know, has done that for me personally. It gives you an identity, something to look forward to something, to work towards a goal.

"And the young people that attend this event, it's the same for them, and it's just so vitally important that sport is that vehicle that allows people to access those changes in themselves.

"You can just see that there's a belonging that these athletes feel here and being part of something where they feel comfortable and they can just be themselves."

That is a sentiment that 20-year-old Sionann Murphy, who has cerebral palsy, could relate to as she attends her 11th Games.

She first took part in the event as an eight-year-old at the urging of her physio and it has just now dawned on her that next year will be her last.

In her first year Murphy was one of only three people from Auckland competing at the event held in Cambridge.

"The team was quite little back then and I remember being one of the youngest people at the Games.

"It was an eye-opener for me, because growing up in my world, I had always been the Para that was trying to fit inside the able body world and so for the first time ever I was actually competing against people that were exactly like me and it was the first time ever that I could be myself without having to try to fit in."

Murphy said the Games were a "no judgment zone".

"In the sense that there's always going to be someone less disabled than you, but there's always going to be someone more disabled than you, but everybody gets along.

"It's one time a year where we can just be us, there's no competition, we can just feel almost normal, pretty much, and you're able to do every sport. The cool thing about Halberg Games is no one gets excluded from anything. So whether you're in a wheelchair, a frame, whether you're missing an arm or a leg, or have cerebral palsy, you can actually try every single sport because it's adapted to you."

Murphy is a Para national champion in shot put and discus for F37 and holds under-20 records. She was also the 2024 Oceania champion for discus.

On Friday she will attempt to do a World Championships qualifying mark for shot put. An attempt that she hopes will inspire the younger athletes that watch it take place at the Halberg Games.

But she will have a busy schedule outside of her favoured athletics pursuits.

"This year I've entered five events for swimming, because it's the time of year where you can just let your hair down and have fun. Yes you can be competitive with your mates if you want to, but it's just more about crossing that line and feeling the achievement that you did it.

"So a lot of people give a lot of things outside their comfort zone a go. We have heaps of kids that hop in the pool, and maybe it's their first time swimming, and we have helpers in the water helping them, and when they cross that line, the cheering and the clapping and how excited they are it's the best feeling in the world seeing how they accomplish their hopes and dreams here."

Once the Games moved to Auckland, the participation numbers increased and Murphy will be alongside about 80 others in the Auckland team this week.

"As it's gotten bigger over the years, we've got more and more sports involved, which is quite cool, and it gives a range for the kids.

"Each year there's always some new sports around some of the old ones. This is the first time ever we've got ki-o-rahi and Māori games happening at the Games, which is quite exciting."

Sigurdsson said the aim was to have two or three new sports every year and "there are sports that drop out but they tend to come back eventually as well".

"We try and provide different opportunities that might suit different impairment groups. For example, making sure that there's powerchair football and boccia for those that might have more significant impairment, and ensuring opportunities in the visual impairment space and making sure they have enough opportunity over the weekend to fill up their schedule," Sigurdsson said.

"So we are quite targeted in what we put on, but also acknowledge that there's some really good coaches and sport deliverers from those other key sports that we just we need them back every year."

For the past four years Murphy has been a Halberg Youth Council member as well as an avid competitor.

"I suddenly feel quite old, because going from the youngest to definitely one of the oldest, it's quite crazy to me.

"I'm honestly just looking forward to seeing every kid's smiling face, seeing them cross the finish line, seeing them achieve their goals because some of these kids have trained for this all year round. Some kids are just here to have a go, have fun and meet new people."

For Sigurdsson the Halberg Games and what it offers participants and their families were one of the reasons he was in the disability sector.

"We get to see all these young people, smiling, having fun, interacting, socialising and we see some of these athletes coming back for five or six years, and we see them growing hugely."

As the Halberg Games grew Murphy hoped in the next decade that the event could alternate locations to make it more accessible to athletes throughout the country.