Special Olympics

Special Olympics

International sports program for people with intellectual disability. It provides year-round training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-type summer and winter sports for participants. Inaugurated in 1968 through the efforts of Eunice Kennedy Shriver and the Chicago Park District, the Special Olympics was officially recognized by the International Olympic Committee in 1988. Games are held every two years, alternating between winter and summer sports. International headquarters are in Washington, D.C.

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Special Olympics

February and June-July

The Special Olympics is an international program of year-round sports training and athletic competition for more than one million children and adults with mental retardation. It was founded by Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who organized the first International Special Olympics Summer Games at Soldier Field in Chicago in 1968. Five years earlier, Shriver had started a day camp for people with mental retardation, and she quickly saw that they were far more capable in sports and physical activities that many experts thought.
Today, athletes from 160 countries participate in local, national, and international competitions in 26 summer and winter sports, such as basketball, cycling, gymnastics, soccer, floor hockey, alpine skiing, figure skating, and aquatics. There are Special Olympics chapters in all 50 states of the U.S., and about 25,000 communities have Special Olympics programs. The Special Olympics World Summer Games are held every four years in early summer (June-July) and the Special Olympics World Winter Games are held every four years in February. The president of the United States often attends the opening ceremonies, during which the Special Olympic Cauldron is lit.

CONTACTS:
Special Olympics International
1133 19th St. N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20036
202-628-3630; fax: 202-824-0200
www.specialolympics.org
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