Mary Davis described it as a milestone. The 2003 Special Olympics World Games chief operating officer was referring to Bank of Ireland's financial investment in an event Ireland will play host to.

Bank of Ireland confirmed that they would provide £3 million directly towards the organisation of the Games, and a further £1.4 million promoting the event throughout the country between now and 2003.

This weekend, at the Mars Planet Sports Show, Special Olympics Ireland have taken a stand at the Point Depot to outline their plans for the biggest international sporting event in the world that year.

Over 9,000 athletes and coaches from 160 countries will converge on Ireland, with 28,000 family members and supporters expected to travel.

It represents a huge undertaking, but Davis is delighted with the progress made to date. "We have had the full support of successive Irish governments since we began bidding for the games in 1996, and this announcement of Bank of Ireland's sponsorship is a further vote of confidence in everyone who has been involved in the dream, and now the reality, of bringing these World Games to Ireland.

"We are well on our way to achieving our financial targets. With just under three years to go we have already secured £12.25 million and, in the next two months, will be announcing a further £5 million in sponsorship." This is against projected costs of £24 million to stage the event in Ireland.

The Government has put out a tender for the building of the national aquatic centre at Abbotstown, the projected site of a national stadium. The former needs to be finished in time for the Special Olympics in 2003.

One of the features of the World Games will be a Host Town programme, where all the participating teams will be accommodated by local communities in the week prior to the start of competition, allowing relaxation, acclimatisation and training before moving to Dublin.

Bank of Ireland will be focusing much of their support to the promotion and development of the Host Town programme.

The Special Olympics is an international, year-round programme of sports training and competition for individuals with a learning disability.

One million athletes in 150 countries train and compete in 25 summer and winter sports. The idea for the Games, the brainchild of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, came to fruition in 1968.

Special Olympics Ireland was founded in 1978 and currently boasts 12,000 participants from a total population of 27,000 people with a learning disability in Ireland.