The First International Special Olympics Games Were Organized By President John F. Kennedy’s Sister And Held In 1968, Becoming The World’s Largest Program Of Its Kind
With the 2024 Olympic Games currently taking place in Paris, now is as good a time as any to dive into the history of the Special Olympics, an international program for people with intellectual disabilities to participate in sports training and athletic competition.
Last year, the Special Olympics World Games were held in Berlin, Germany. Over 7,000 athletes from 170 different countries took part in the games.
The Special Olympics began soon after John F. Kennedy became the president of the United States in 1961. Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the president’s sister, started a summer day camp in the backyard of her Maryland home. The goal of the camp was to help children with intellectual disabilities explore their skills in sports.
As the camp grew, more and more people saw that the children were just like the other kids who wanted to have fun.
With the support of the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation, dozens of similar camps were created across the U.S. and Canada. Eventually, Shriver’s efforts earned her the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Shriver was inspired to take action after seeing the way the world treated and excluded people with intellectual disabilities. Throughout the 1960s, she was committed to transforming the world’s views about differently-abled people.
Her movement gained national attention when the Kennedy family announced that one of their own family members, Rosemary Kennedy, had an intellectual disability.
Rosemary was President Kennedy’s eldest sister. She was developmentally different from her siblings and took longer to learn things.
Due to the lack of research and knowledge of disabilities at the time, Rosemary wasn’t properly cared for. She lived in a psychiatric institution for over 20 years. Rosemary’s story encouraged the Kennedys to advocate for individuals with intellectual disabilities.
Achim Wagner – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only
In the summer of 1968, Shriver organized the first International Special Olympics Games. They were held at Soldier Field in Chicago.
Later that year, in December, the Special Olympics were officially recognized by the International Olympic Committee.
Since then, the Special Olympics has become the largest program of its kind in the world. In this community, every person, regardless of ability, is accepted, included, and welcomed.
More than 30 Olympic-style sports are offered, such as swimming, soccer, gymnastics, tennis, volleyball, and bowling.
Every two years, around one million athletes participate in some 20,000 meets and tournaments all over the globe.
The games are held every two years and last for nine days. They also alternate between winter and summer sports. This year, the games took place in Richmond, Virginia.
Today, the Special Olympics is a global movement that serves more than 4.4 million athletes in 170 countries and many more volunteers and supporters.
It gives athletes with intellectual disabilities the chance to realize their full potential, discover new strengths, experience triumphs, and build confidence through the power of sports.
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