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Special Olympics

Special Olympics is the world's largest sports organization for children and adults with intellectual disabilities providing year-round training and activities to 5 million participants and Unified Sports partners in 172 countries.[2] Special Olympics competitions are held daily, all around the world—including local, national and regional competitions, adding up to more than 100,000 events a year.[3] Like the International Paralympic Committee, the Special Olympics organization is recognized by the International Olympic Committee; however, unlike the Paralympic Games, its World Games are not held in the same year nor in conjunction with the Olympic Games.

For global sports competitions organized by Special Olympics, see Special Olympics World Games.

Founded

July 20, 1968 (1968-07-20)

Camp Shriver

International

English
and the host country's official language when necessary

Timothy Shriver (Chairman of the Board)
Mary Davis (Chief Executive Officer)
William P. Alford (Lead Director & Vice Chair)
Angelo Moratti (Vice Chair)
Loretta Claiborne (Vice Chair)[1]

The Special Olympics World Games is a major event put on by the Special Olympics committee. The World Games generally alternate between summer and winter games, in two-year cycles, recurring every fourth year. The first edition of the games were held on July 20, 1968, in Chicago, Illinois, with about 1,000 athletes from the U.S. and Canada. At those first games, honorary event chair Eunice Kennedy Shriver announced the formation of the Special Olympics organization. International participation expanded in subsequent games. In 2003, the first summer games held outside the United States were in Dublin, Ireland with 7000 athletes from 150 countries. The most recent Summer Games were hosted in Berlin, Germany, between June 16 to 25, 2023.[4]


The first World Winter Games were held in 1977 in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, US. Austria hosted the first Winter Games outside the United States in 1993. The most recent Special Olympics World Winter Games were held in Graz, Schladming and Ramsau, Austria, from March 14, 2017, to March 25, 2017 (see also 2017 Special Olympics World Winter Games). During the World Winter Games of 2013 in Pyeongchang, South Korea,[5] the first Special Olympics Global Development Summit was held on "Ending the Cycle of Poverty and Exclusion for People with Intellectual Disabilities", gathering government officials, activists and business leaders from around the world.[6]

Symbols[edit]

The Special Olympics logo is based on the sculpture "Joy and Happiness to All the Children of the World" by Zurab Tsereteli. The State University of New York, Brockport played host to the 1979 Summer Games and Tsereteli was then a visiting artist in residence at the university. He worked with the Kennedy Foundation and gifted the sculpture to the University.[35][36] The "stick figure" is an abstract but humanistic form designed to convey the impression of movement and activity. The logo is meant to be a symbol of growth, confidence and joy among children and adults with disabilities.


In 2018, the Chicago Park District dedicated the "Eternal Flame of Hope" in honor of the Special Olympics. The 30 foot (9.1 m) sculpture by Richard Hunt stands in a plaza next to Soldier Field, where the first games were held 50 years earlier in 1968.[37][38] The Flame of Hope is the name given to the torch that is carried to and lit at Special Olympics games.[39]

Unified Sports[edit]

In recent years, Special Olympics has pioneered the concept of Unified Sports, bringing together athletes with and without intellectual disabilities as teammates.[63] The basic concept is that training together and playing together can create a path to friendship and understanding. The program has expanded beyond the U.S. and North America: more than 1.4 million people worldwide now take part in Special Olympics Unified Sports.[64] The goal is to break down stereotypes about people with intellectual disabilities and promote unity.[63]


Building on this, Special Olympics launched "The Revolution Is Inclusion", inviting people worldwide to sign the Inclusion Pledge.[65] This campaign aimed at celebrating all abilities began as Special Olympics marked its 50th anniversary.[66]


A recent study of Special Olympics Unified Sports in Serbia, Poland, Ukraine, Germany and Hungary documented the benefits of Unified Sports, including the effect of changing attitudes toward people with intellectual disabilities. As one Unified Sports partner said, "I am ashamed to say that I used to laugh at these people (people with intellectual disabilities), now I will tell anybody to stop laughing if I see it and I will stand up for people if I can."[67] Other evaluations have also shown Unified Sports to be successful in building self-esteem and confidence in people with intellectual disabilities and also as a way to improve understanding and acceptance of people with intellectual disabilities among their non-disabled peers.[67]


The Special Olympics Europe Eurasia Regional Research centre is based at the University of Ulster Jordanstown.[68]


As part of their 50th anniversary, the Special Olympics created the first Unified Cup.[69] The first competition is a soccer tournament with 440 athletes from 24 countries.[70][71]


Unified Robotics, a program that pairs Special Olympics students with FIRST Robotics students to build robots, began in 2016, and has been bringing opportunities for technological skill development to Special Olympics students in Washington state, Arizona, and in other regions since. Special Olympics Arizona also promotes inclusion through Unified Arts programming including robotics, music, photography, art competitions, and gardening.[72]

Healthy Athletes[edit]

As the Special Olympics began to grow, staffers and volunteers began to notice that athletes — children and adults with intellectual disabilities — also had many untreated health problems. In 1997, Special Olympics began an initiative called Healthy Athletes, which offers health screenings to athletes in need.[73]


Healthy Athletes currently offers health screenings in eight areas: Fit Feet (podiatry), FUNfitness (physical therapy), Health Promotion (better health and well-being), Healthy Hearing (audiology), MedFest (sports physical exam), Opening Eyes (vision), Special Smiles (dentistry), Strong Minds (Emotional Health). Screenings educate athletes on health and also identify problems that may need additional follow-up. For example, the FUNfitness Program assess flexibility, strength, balance, and aerobic fitness of the athlete. Following the screen, the physical therapist would provide instructions on how to optimize their physical fitness in the areas screened.[74]


Since the Healthy Athletes program began, Special Olympics has become the largest global public health organization dedicated to serving people with intellectual disabilities. So far, more than 1.9 million Healthy Athletes screenings have been conducted for people with intellectual disabilities all around the world.[73]


The Special Olympics health initiative has attracted high-profile partners, including the Hear the World Foundation, which screened more than 1,000 athletes during the most recent World Winter Games in Korea; more than 200 of them were found to have hearing loss.[75][76]


In 2012, the Special Olympics Healthy Communities initiative launched in eight countries—Kazakhstan, Malawi, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Romania, South Africa and Thailand, as well as six U.S. states. The goal is to improve the health and well-being of people with intellectual disabilities and allow them to reach their full potential.[48]

Criticism[edit]

Scholar Keith Storey summarized common objections in a 2004 article in Journal of Disability Policy Studies.[77] One criticism directed at the organization pertains to the role that corporate sponsors play in it, which critics feel has led to degrading paternalism toward athletic ability. While corporate fundraising makes the games possible, critics argue, it provides good public relations for the sponsors, but does not result in integration of people with disabilities into the workforce at those companies. People with disabilities are also not widely represented on the Special Olympics' board of directors, as only two members have disabilities. This has been criticized as a double standard that reflects poorly on the disability rights movement where people with disabilities control the service delivery system rather than relying on people without disabilities.

In popular culture[edit]

The Special Olympics was featured in the 2004 South Park episode, Up the Down Steroid.

Deaflympics

Flame of Hope

Healthy Athletes

Special Hockey

. The Sins of the Father: Joseph P. Kennedy and the Dynasty He Founded. Warner Books, 1996. ISBN 0-446-60384-8

Kessler, Ronald

Special Olympics

Special Olympics Australia