THE Olympic games are finished and we are getting ready to welcome to Britain the Paralympic athletes.

But did you know, asks former BBC journalist and old chum Martin Noble, that there is a third games?

“Much has been written recently about volunteers for the Olympic Games and Paralympics ,” says Martin “but my elder son, Andrew, a former Honley High School pupil had been a 'helper' at some games in the USA some years ago.”

Were they the Paralympics, I asked. No, he replied – the Special Olympics.

“It was in 1979 when Andrew was staying with family friends in Brockport, the home of New York State University, which was the venue for the week-long Fifth Special Olympics.”

The games were established by Eunice Kennedy Shriver (one of the Kennedy family) in 1960 for athletes with intellectual learning disabilities. They officially became part of the Olympic movement in 1988.

“Evidently at Brockport, there were 3,500 athletes from all the US states and 20 countries. Andrew says he was the only Brit volunteer helper – his jobs being to marshal the athletes, answer enquiries, but, above all, offer encouragement to competitors of all ages.

“Quite frankly, I find all this fascinating because I hadn’t, until now, realised there are THREE Olympics.”

Their summer games were held in Athens last year. I was in Ireland at the time and the coverage on Irish radio and TV was extensive. Ireland had sent a strong team and they won a load of medals.

Great Britain actually has 135 Special Olympics Clubs, run by 2,800 volunteers helping 8,000 athletes. The next winter games are in Korea next year, and the next summer games are in California in 2015.

The BBC drama The Best Of Men, which was screened last Thursday, showed how the Paralympics were inspired by the pioneering work of Dr Ludwig Guttman.

He was a Jewish neurologist who escaped Nazi Germany and became head of the spinal injuries unit at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in 1944.

He revolutionised the care and treatment of badly injured soldiers and organised the first Stoke Mandeville Wheelchair Games which were held the same day the London Olympics opened in 1948.

They were held every four years until they were embraced by the Olympic movement. The first official Paralympics were held in Rome in 1960.

If you missed the drama and have catch-up TV, watch it while you can. It's the moving and evocative story of a forgotten hero. You'll laugh and cheer as well as cry.

Probably the same emotions we'll get when watching the Paralympics. They start on August 29.