We had all passed FBI background checks and were instructed to bring nothing into the prison with us, except our gloves, baseballs, batting helmets, four wood bats, water and our drivers licenses, which were shown repeatedly to the guards at the checkpoints leading in and out of the prison.

I'll be cheering these inspiring athletes on every step of the way and I encourage you to discover for yourself what I've come to know: that being a part of Special Olympics has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.

Don't expect to win any games, they said. Some of the boys have attention issues, they said; several chronically misbehave. Some lack "talent" or are slow footed. And we think so and so is selling weed, and, oh, by the way, we don't think a woman should be coaching a boys' team in the first place. I had a different perspective.

According to some of my friends who are athletes in Special Olympics, when they hear the word 'retard' being used in that context, they feel hurt, anger, sadness, disgust -- and I even heard "It's like a knife cutting into my heart."

Underneath his shirt when the Paris Saint-German football club played against Caen at Parc des Princes, Zlatan had tattooed fifty names -- names of people he'd never met, but who were very special to him.