Special Olympics is the world's largest sports organization for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, providing year-round training and competitions to more than 4.5 million athletes in 170 countries. Special Olympics competitions are held every day, all around the world—including local, national and regional competitions, adding up to more than 94,000 events a year. Like the International Paralympic Committee, the Special Olympics organization is recognized by the International Olympic Committee; however, unlike the same Paralympic Games, Special Olympics World Games are not held in conjunction with the Olympic Games, and regional Special Olympics committees are not closely modeled on national olympic committees.

These competitions include the Special Olympics World Games, which alternate between summer and winter games. Special Olympics World Games are held every two years. The most recent World Summer Games were the Special Olympics World Summer Games, held in Los Angeles, California (The largest event in LA since the 1984 Olympic Games), from July 25, 2015 to August 2, 2015 and for the first time were part of ESPN daily coverage.

The First International Special Olympics Games (Summer Special Olympics) were held in Soldier Field, Chicago, Illinois on July 20, 1968.

1,000 athletes from 26 states, and Canada competed in track and swimming. Swimming included 25 meter races, and track had short distance runnings, ball throws, and standing long jump.

The athlete's oath was introduced at these games by founder Eunice Shriver at the opening ceremony. The oath is, "Let me win. But if I can not win, let me be brave in the attempt."

See also

The 2003 Special Olympics World Summer Games were hosted in Ireland, with participants staying in various host towns around the island in the lead up to the games before moving to Dublin for the events. Events were held from 21–29 June 2003 at many venues including Morton Stadium, the Royal Dublin Society, the National Basketball Arena, all in Dublin. Croke Park served as the central stadium for the opening and closing ceremonies, even though no competitions took place there. Belfast, Northern Ireland was the venue for roller skating events (at the Kings Hall), as well as the Special Olympics Scientific Symposium (held from 19–20 June).

Host town programme

177 towns, cities and villages and the Aran Islands hosted national delegations in the run up to the games. Each town ran programmes to educate the local community about the customs of the country they would host and provided facilities for the teams to acclimatise. Newbridge, County Kildare, host to the Japan delegation won the award for best host town.