Sports Offered
Special Olympics has over 32 Olympic-type individual and team sports that provide meaningful training and competition opportunities for people with intellectual disabilities. A few are listed below:
- Alpine Skiing
- Aquatics
- Athletics (Track and Field)
- Badminton
- Basketball
- Bocce
- Bowling
- Cross-Country Skiing
- Cycling
- Equestrian Sports
- Figure Skating
- Floor Hockey
- Football (Soccer)
- Golf
- Gymnastics
- Handball
- Judo
- Powerlifting
- Sailing
- Short-track Speedskating
- Snowboarding
- Snowshoeing
- Softball
- Table Tennis
- Tennis
- Volleyball
The above list shows a few of the 32 sports that Special Olympics offers; there are several more recognized and demonstration sports, including Open Water Swimming, Kayaking, Floorball, Cricket, Netball and Beach Volleyball. Availability of sports can depend on location and season.
In the Young Athletes program, children ages 2–7 play simple sports and games. The focus is on fun activities that are important to mental and physical growth.
In 1968, track and field and swimming were the first two official sports offered by Special Olympics. As in the Olympics, events are introduced in training and then added to the competitive schedule, and from there the list of sports and events continued to grow.
Read more about this topic: Special Olympics
Famous quotes containing the words sports and/or offered:
“It was so hard to pry this door open, and if I mess up I know the people behind me are going to have it that much harder. Because then there’s living proof. They can sit around and say, “See? It doesn’t work.” I don’t want to be their living proof.”
—Gayle Gardner, U.S. sports reporter. As quoted in Sports Illustrated, p. 87 (June 17, 1991)
“Here also was made the novelty ‘Chestnut Bell’ which enjoyed unusual popularity during the gay nineties when every dandy jauntily wore one of the tiny bells on the lapel of his coat, and rang it whenever a story-teller offered a ‘chestnut.’”
—Administration for the State of Con, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)