Special Olympics
 | |
| Founded | July 20, 1968 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Eunice Kennedy Shriver |
| Location | 2600 Virginia Ave., NW Washington, D.C., U.S. 20037 |
| Origins | Camp Shriver |
Region served | International |
Official language | English and the host country's official language when necessary |
Key people | Timothy Shriver (chairman of the board) David S Evangelista (president and CEO)[1] William P. Alford (lead director & vice chair) Angelo Moratti (vice chair) Loretta Claiborne (vice chair)[1] |
| Website | www |
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 and territories.[2] Special Olympics events are held daily, in all levels including local, national regional and global 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.
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 games were first held on July 20, 1968, in Chicago, Illinois, United States, 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, from June 16 to 25, 2023.[4]
The first World Winter Games were held in 1977 in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, U.S. Austria hosted the first Winter Games outside the United States in 1993. The most recent Special Olympics World Winter Games were held in Turino, Italy, from March 8, 2025, to March 15, 2025. 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]
History
[edit]
Eunice Kennedy Shriver, sister of U.S. president John F. Kennedy, believed that people with intellectual disabilities could be happy and live meaningful lives. Eunice founded the Special Olympics to positively change attitudes towards mentally handicapped people.[7] In June 1963, Kennedy Shriver started a day camp called Camp Shriver for children with intellectual and physical disabilities at her home in Potomac, Maryland.[8] The camp sought to address the concern that disabled children had very little opportunity to participate in organised athletic events. With Camp Shriver as an example, Kennedy Shriver, then head of the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation and a member of President John F. Kennedy's Panel on Mental Retardation, promoted the concept of involvement in physical activity and other opportunities for people with intellectual disabilities.[9] Camp Shriver became an annual event, and the Kennedy Foundation gave grants to universities, recreation departments, and community centers to hold similar camps.
Also in the early 1960s, Kennedy Shriver wrote an article in the Saturday Evening Post, stating that her sister Rosemary Kennedy, also President John F. Kennedy's sister, was born with intellectual disabilities.[10] Rosemary was slow to learn, suffered seizures and mood swings. Her mother was told by doctors that Rosemary's situation was hopeless. In the early 1940s, Rosemary was prescribed a lobotomy, which left her incapacitated.[11] This frank article about the President's family was seen as a "watershed" in changing public attitudes toward people with intellectual disabilities.[12] Rosemary's disability provided Kennedy Shriver with an overall vision that people with intellectual disabilities could compete and at the same time unify together in public.[13] It has often been said that Rosemary's disability was Eunice's inspiration to form Special Olympics (as the movement came to be called); Eunice told The New York Times in 1995 that that was not exactly the case. "The games should not focus on one individual," she said.[14]
In 1958, Dr. James N. Oliver of England had conducted pioneering research, including a ground-breaking study showing that physical exercise and activities for children with intellectual disabilities had positive effects that also carried over into the classroom ("The Effects of Physical Conditioning Exercises and Activities on the Mental Characteristics of Educationally Sub-Normal Boys, British Journal of Educational Psychology, XXVIII, June 1958).[15] Oliver in 1964 served as a consultant to Camp Shriver.[16]
Let me win but if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt
The 1964 research of Dr. Frank Hayden, a Canadian physical education professor from London, Ontario, demonstrated that intellectually disabled people can and should participate in physical exercise. He believed that the benefits of such activity would be seen in all areas of the athletes' lives.[18] With the help of a local school that offered space in its gym, Hayden started one of the first public organised sports programs, floor hockey for individuals with intellectual disabilities, in the fall of 1968.[19] In the mid-1960s, Hayden also developed an idea for national games, and his work brought him to the attention of the Kennedy Foundation. He shared his ideas for national games, while taking a teaching sabbatical and working for the foundation.[20]
The first Special Olympics games were held on July 20, 1968, at Soldier Field in Chicago, six weeks after the assassination of Kennedy Shriver's younger brother Robert F. Kennedy. About 1,000 athletes from the U.S. and Canada took part in the one-day event, which was a joint venture by the Kennedy Foundation and the Chicago Park District.[21] Anne McGlone Burke, then a physical education teacher with the Chicago Park District,[22] began with the idea for a one-time, city-wide, Olympic-style athletic competition for people with special needs. Burke approached the Kennedy Foundation in 1967 to help fund the event. Kennedy Shriver, in turn, encouraged her to expand the idea beyond the city, and the foundation provided a grant of $25,000.[23] When Burke had approached another charity for funding, she was told, "You should be ashamed of yourself putting these kinds of kids on display".[24] The advisory committee to the Chicago Special Olympics included Dr. William Freeberg from Southern Illinois University, Dr. Hayden of the Kennedy Foundation, Dr. Arthur Peavy, Burke, William McFetridge, and Stephen Kelly of the Chicago Park District, as well as, Olympic decathlon champion Rafer Johnson. Kennedy Shriver was honorary chair. At the July 1968 games, Kennedy Shriver announced the formation of Special Olympics and that more games would be held every two years as a "Biennial International Special Olympics".[21] Hayden served as the games executive director through 1972, and then in international development for the games.[20] Some 2,500 participants were engaged in the 1970 games at Soldier Field.[25]
In 1971, The U.S. Olympic Committee gave the Special Olympics official approval to use the name "Olympics".[8] France sent the first athletes from outside North America to the second games held in 1970. The third games in 1972 saw 10 nations send athletes[26] The first Special Olympics World Winter Games were held in February 1977 in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, U.S.[8] The United Nations declared 1986, the year of the Special Olympics.[27] In 1988, the Special Olympics was officially recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).[8] The first World Games held outside the U.S., were the winter games of 1993 in Salzburg and Schladming, Austria. The Austrian president was the first head of state to personally open the games.[28]
In 1997, Healthy Athletes became an official Special Olympics initiative, offering health information and screenings to Special Olympics athletes worldwide.[8][29] By 2010, the Healthy Athletes program had given free health screenings and treatment to more than 1 million people with intellectual disabilities.
The 2003 Special Olympics World Summer Games—the first summer held outside of the United States—took place in Dublin, Ireland. Approximately 7,000 athletes from 150 countries competed over 18 disciplines. The Dublin games were also the first to have their own opening and closing ceremonies broadcast live. President of Ireland Mary McAleese performed the ceremonial duties. The 2003 games dramatically changed the perceptions and attitudes of international society regarding the abilities and limitations of people with intellectual disabilities. The opening ceremony of the 2003 Games has been described by President McAleese as "a time when Ireland was at its superb best".[30]
On October 30, 2004, President George W. Bush signed into law the "Special Olympics Sport and Empowerment Act", Public Law 108–406. The bill authorized funding for its Healthy Athletes, Education, and Worldwide Expansion programs.[31] Co-sponsored by representatives Roy Blunt (R-MO), and Steny Hoyer (D-MD), and senators Rick Santorum (R-PA) and Harry Reid (D-NV), the bills were passed by unanimous consent in both chambers. In July 2006, the first Special Olympics USA Games were held at Iowa State University. Teams from all 50 states and the District of Columbia participated.[32]
In May 2016, Mary Davis of Dublin, Ireland, was named chief executive officer. She is the first CEO from outside the U.S. in the organization's history.[33] From 2017 to 2019, U.S. secretary of education Betsy DeVos attempted to eliminate federal funding for the Special Olympics. Each year the attempt was rejected by Congress, and the public outcry following a third annual attempt resulted in the funding being maintained in 2019.[34] As part of the Special Olympics 50th Anniversary celebration in 2018, a new mission called the "Inclusion Revolution" was launched.[35]
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.[36][37] 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.[38][39] The Flame of Hope is the name given to the torch that is carried to and lit at Special Olympics games.[40]
Hosts of the Special Olympics World Games
[edit]| Year | Summer Special Olympics World Games | Winter Special Olympics World Games | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Host | Date(s) | No. | Host | Date(s) | |
| 1968 | 1 |  Chicago, United States | July 20 – August 3 | |||
| 1970 | 2 | Chicago, United States | August 13–15 | |||
| 1972 | 3 | Los Angeles, United States | August 13–18 | |||
| 1975 | 4 | Mount Pleasant, United States | August 8–13 | |||
| 1977 | 1 | Steamboat Springs, United States | February 5–11 | |||
| 1979 | 5 | Brockport, United States | August 8–13 | |||
| 1981 | 2 | Smugglers' Notch and Stowe, United States | March 8–13 | |||
| 1983 | 6 | Baton Rouge, United States | July 12–18 | |||
| 1985 | 3 | Park City, United States | March 24–29 | |||
| 1987 | 7 | Notre Dame and South Bend, United States | July 31 – August 1 | |||
| 1989 | 4 | Lake Tahoe and Reno, United States | April 1–8 | |||
| 1991 | 8 | Minneapolis and Saint Paul, United States | July 19–27 | |||
| 1993 | 5 |  Salzburg and Schladming, Austria | March 20–27 | |||
| 1995 | 9 | New Haven, United States | July 1–9 | |||
| 1997 | 6 |  Collingwood and Toronto, Canada | February 1–8 | |||
| 1999 | 10 | Chapel Hill, Durham and Raleigh, United States | June 26 – July 4 | |||
| 2001 | 7 | Anchorage, United States | March 4–11 | |||
| 2003 | 11 |  Dublin, Ireland | June 21–29 | |||
| 2005 | 8 |  Nagano, Japan | February 26 – March 4 | |||
| 2007 | 12 |  Shanghai, China | October 2–11 | |||
| 2009 | 9 | Boise, United States(1) | February 6–13 | |||
| 2011 | 13 |  Athens, Greece | June 25 – July 4 | |||
| 2013 | 10 |  Pyeongchang, South Korea | January 29 – February 5 | |||
| 2015 | 14 | Los Angeles, United States | July 25 – August 2 | |||
| 2017 | 11 | Graz and Schladming, Austria | March 14–25 | |||
| 2019 | 15 |  Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates | March 14–21 | |||
| 2022 | - |  Kazan, Russia | cancelled(2) | |||
| 2023 | 16 |  Berlin, Germany | June 17–25 | |||
| 2025 | 12 |  Turin-Piedmont, Italy | March 8–15 | |||
| 2027 | 17 |  Santiago, Chile | October 12–24 | |||
| 2029 | 13 |  Zürich-Graubünden, Switzerland | ||||
1 Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, was originally selected to host the 2009 Special Olympics World Winter Games.[41] Due to financial problems and the constant delay in reconstruction of the venues of the 1984 Winter Olympics, the city gave up hosting the Games, and Boise, Idaho, was invited to host the event.[42]
2 It was planned that Åre and Östersund, Sweden would host the 2021 World Winter Games between February 2 to 13, 2021.[43] However, on December 20, 2019, it was announced that the Swedish Paralympic Committee vetoed the necessary financing for the continuity of the event in the country, invalidating a promise made during the bid process, Special Olympics was forced to delay the event[44] and in 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic arose. Kazan, Russia was announced winter host for 2022 on June 29, 2020.[45] On March 4, 2022, it was announced that the Kazan games would be cancelled due to safety and economic concerns arising from the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.[46]
National programs
[edit]As of August 2026, 204 National Programs are grouped into seven geographic regions. Due to legal issues in some countries eight countries use their official in local languages.[47]
| Number | Region | Countries |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Africa | 40 |
| 2 | Asia-Pacific | 35 |
| 3 | East Asia | 6 |
| 4 | Europe-Eurasia | 58 |
| 5 | Americas | 43 |
| 6 | Middle East and North Africa | 22 |
| Total | Special Olympics | 204 |
