Special Olympics World Games

Special Olympics World Games
The crowd at the Special Olympics World Games Opening Ceremonies in Croke Park, Dublin, Ireland, 2003
Status	Active
Genre	Sporting event
Date(s)	Various
Frequency	Every two years
Country	Various
Inaugurated	1968 (1968) (summer) 1977 (1977) (winter)

The mascot for the Shanghai 2007 Special Olympics, displayed in Pudong in front of the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum.

The Special Olympics World Games are an international sporting competition for athletes with intellectual disabilities, organized by the IOC-recognised Special Olympics organisation.

Principles

Although local Special Olympics events and competitions are held around the world every day, the World Games are flagship events. The goal is to showcase the skills and accomplishments of people with intellectual disabilities on a global stage.^[1] The World Games feature more than a week of competitions involving thousands of athletes. Through media coverage of the Games, the stories and achievements of children and adults with intellectual disabilities are made known to millions of people worldwide.^[1]

Special Olympics World Games take place every two years and alternate between Summer and Winter Games, a schedule similar to the Olympics and Paralympics. Attracting as many as 350,000 volunteers and coaches, plus several thousands of athletes, these World Games can be the world's largest sporting event of the year.^[1][2]

Special Olympics athletes can compete in 32 Olympic-style summer or winter sports. The athletes are adults and children with intellectual disabilities who can range from gifted, world-class competitors to average athletes to those with limited physical ability. It's a fundamental rule of Special Olympics competitions that athletes are matched up according to their ability and age. This “divisioning” process is an effort to make every competition fair, competitive and exciting for athletes as well as fans.^[3]

History

The first International Special Olympics Summer Games were held in Chicago, Illinois, US, in 1968, while the first International Special Olympics Winter Games were held in February 1977 in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, US. In 1991, the name was officially changed from International Special Olympics Summer/Winter Games to Special Olympics World Summer/Winter Games.^[4]

In 2011, Special Olympics World Summer Games were held on June 25 – July 4 in Athens, Greece, involving 6,000 athletes with intellectual disabilities from 170 countries.^[2]

The most recent Special Olympics World Winter Games were held in PyeongChang, South Korea from Jan. 29 – Feb. 5, 2013.The Host Town program, in which families host Special Olympics athletes from around the world to help them acclimate to the host country and customs, began on Jan. 26, 2013.^[5]

The most recent 2015 Special Olympics World Summer Games were held in Los Angeles, California from July 25 – Aug. 2, 2015.^[6] These games were the first Special Olympics World Summer Games held in the United States in 16 years since the 1999 Summer Games held in Raleigh, North Carolina.

The next World Winter Games will be the 2017 Special Olympics World Winter Games in Graz and Schladming in Styria, Austria. This marks a return: Salzburg and Schladming, Austria hosted the fifth Special Olympics World Winter Games in 1993. These were the first Special Olympics World Games held outside the United States. The 2017 World Winter Games will be held March 14-March 25, 2017. ^[7]

Hosts

Special Olympics World Games hosts

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