Special Olympics offers 30 Olympic-type individual and team sports that provide meaningful training and competition opportunities for persons with intellectual disabilities, including age-appropriate activities and activities for lower ability athletes. For persons with severe limitations who do not yet possess the physical and/or behavioral skills necessary to participate in these sports, Special Olympics also offers the Motor Activities Training Program (MATP).
Special Olympics Unified Sports® is an initiative that combines approximately equal numbers of Special Olympics athletes and athletes without intellectual disabilities (called Partners) on sports teams for training and competition.
Initiatives
Special Olympics is committed to empowering people with intellectual disabilities on and off the playing field. By working to remove obstacles, change attitudes and open minds, Special Olympics provides opportunities for its athletes to demonstrate courage, experience joy and share their gifts, skills and friendship with the world.
Athlete Leadership Programs (ALPs) allow athletes to explore opportunities for participation in roles previously considered "non-traditional," such as serving on Boards of Directors or local organizing committees.
Special Olympics offers families not just opportunities for sports, social interaction and fun, but also a much-needed support system.
Special Olympics Healthy Athletes® helps athletes improve their health and fitness, leading to enhanced sports experience and improved well-being.
The Schools & Youth initiative encourages school-age youth to celebrate differences and break down barriers, increasing participation of young people without intellectual disabilities in Special Olympics.
Young AthletesTM introduces children with intellectual disabilities and their families to the world of Special Olympics.
Humanitarian Efforts
Special Olympics touches countless people in countless ways, and its impact reaches far beyond the sphere of sports. Coaches, trainers and volunteers step forward from their communities to help the athletes. Family members participate, becoming active members of both an immediate community and a vastly extended one. Spectators at events, students at schools that support Special Olympics and many other community members respond to the message and the energy of Special Olympics. Through a variety of initiatives, Special Olympics brings people together.
By involving such a diverse range of individuals and groups, Special Olympics can pave the way for community-based development. And by reaching across an array of actual and perceived boundaries—geographic borders, religion, race, age, gender, economic status and cultures—Special Olympics serves as a catalytic force for communities, promoting inclusion, volunteerism, broad citizen engagement and the human dignity of all people.
Researching & Grants
Special Olympics has emerged as a global leader in cutting-edge research and evaluation to promote better understanding of issues surrounding intellectual disabilities. With current, fact-based, externally validated research findings, Special Olympics has an opportunity to enhance the overall lives of people with intellectual disabilities.
Research projects commissioned by Special Olympics provide high-level, externally validated scientific data to:
Inform audiences about the unmet needs of people with intellectual disabilities worldwide;
Inform the public about the competence, value and contributions of people with intellectual disabilities to the world community; and
Guide improvements in Special Olympics programs and practices.
