Special Olympics
Special Olympics
Healthy Athletes
What We Do
Dignity, acceptance, and a chance to reach one’s potential – these are human rights worth promoting for everyone. For more than four decades, Special Olympics has been bringing one message to the world: people with intellectual disabilities can and will succeed if given the opportunity.
Special Olympics is Sports. In 2010 alone, Special Olympics held five major regional games throughout the world, including Syria (above). The challenging series of events earned Special Olympics the 2011 Spirit of Sport award from the SportAccord Council. Learn more
Special Olympics is Self Advocacy. When a Special Olympics Virginia basketball player named David Egan spoke before a U.S. Senate committee, he caught the eye and ear of powerful legislators. Egan is one of many Special Olympics athletes who have spoken directly to people in power in order to make their needs known.
Special Olympics is Family Support. Mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers are often the first support system for people with intellectual disabilities. When you add Special Olympics and its family support programs to the mix, you have real power to improve lives.
Special Olympics is Health Care. It's no surprise that people around the world have trouble getting good healthcare, but even in rich countries, people with intellectual disabilities are turned away because of fear or prejudice. The Special Olympics Healthy Athletes program cuts through that with hundreds of dedicated health care professional volunteers who've screened over a million Special Olympics athletes.
Special Olympics is where athletes with intellectual disabilities celebrate and are celebrated for their accomplishments. It's often the first time that our athletes have truly taken center stage and been recognized as individuals. And the focus is not limited to sports. In diverse areas like healthcare, leadership training, legislative self advocacy and employment, Special Olympics takes a leadership role.
Top Honor for Special Olympics
Special Olympics places great value on using sport opportunities to make changes in society around the world. In August, Special Olympics earned the number one spot on a list of high-impact nonprofit organizations serving people with disabilities in the United States. Philanthropedia, a subsidiary of industry non-profit data leader Guidestar, evaluates nonprofit effectiveness by surveying industry experts. Learn more. See the press release.
“Sport teaches us to recognize our similarities over our differences while celebrating the effort to do one’s best in a spirit of respect," said Tim Shriver, CEO of Special Olympics, as the organization accepted the honor. "And while Special Olympics has had a positive impact on many persons with an intellectually disability, there are many more people that are still hidden, shunned or abused. We look forward to working more closely with the international sports community to broaden the reach of our organizations and bring the joy and goodwill of sport to many more people.” (Read the press release.)
Creating a World of Acceptance
Through year-round sports training and competition, Special Olympics empowers individuals with intellectual disabilities in more than 180 countries. Special Olympics often is the only place where they have an opportunity to participate in their communities and develop belief in themselves. Many live lives of neglect and isolation, hidden away or socially excluded from full participation in schools or society. Transforming the athlete, Special Olympics sports are a gateway to empowerment, competence, acceptance and joy.
But we also transform their communities. When people see Special Olympics athletes in action, they see their humanity, their joy in competition, their pride and their potential, and they begin to believe in a different kind of world – a world in which everyone is respected and included.
Special Olympics is Changing Lives
In Afghanistan, it means the 2009 Special Olympics World Winter Games floor hockey team was honored with congratulations from the highest levels of government as a tribute to their success. In Romania, it means children who were solitary and forgotten now participate in sports training and interact regularly with the community outside their institutions. In the United States, it means the young girl who was bullied or isolated is chosen as homecoming queen. In China, it means people who were hidden away in their homes now receive vocational and literacy training at thousands of Sunshine Centers across the provinces.
Changing Attitudes, One Person at a Time
We are also a catalyst for societal change, fostering community building around the globe. We are a leader in diversity and tolerance education, bringing young people with and without intellectual disabilities together in our youth and schools outreach. We are a research leader, partnering with governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the private sector to develop new ways to include people with intellectual disabilities in all aspects of society. We are the world’s largest public health organization serving people with intellectual disabilities, offering free health screenings to the world’s most neglected populations. And we are the fastest-growing grass-roots volunteer movement on the planet, with the potential to improve the quality of life for 200 million people with intellectual disabilities – 3 percent of the global population.
