Why Do Special Athletes Participate In Sports

Since 1968, Special Olympics has covered people with intellectual disabilities in competitive sports. Now, more than 4.4 million people young and old with ID take part in training and competitions worldwide, All Special Olympics athletes take part in sports, and that includes weekly training and minimum one main competition per season. Special Olympics offers 32 official sports and many of our athletes take part in sports. In the United States alone, 500,000 people with intellectual disabilities are included with Special Olympics, Special Olympics also has a strong plan to cure the health of our athletes. It 's called Healthy Athletes, and since it begin in 1997, we 've done 1.4 million health checking. And the health checker are always free for our athletes. Every year, Special Olympics holds around 800 free screening clinics worldwide, The Special Olympics Healthy Communities action takes the basics of the Healthy

There is a successful partnership between Special Olympics and schools. The majority of athletes become involved in Special Olympics through programs organized through a special school, throughout their involvement in Special Olympics, athletes take advantage of the variety of individual and team sports offered through the movement and participate in multiple sports, Special Olympics athletes become involved because their program is a school-organized activity and they participate because they value the opportunity to be fit and physically active and because they enjoy playing sports. This finding is especially significant because these are some of the same reasons that athletes without disabilities participate in sports, the benefits of participation in Special Olympics are substantial for its athletes. There is strong consensus between family members, coaches, and the athletes themselves that there is significant improvement in athletes’ sense of self, social skills, and relationships with others as a result of their participation in Special