5 Things You Didn’t Know About the Special Olympics

An Inspiring Network

“Let me win, but if I cannot win, let me brave in the attempt.” –Motto of the Special Olympics

The Special Olympics continues to be one of the most well-known and well-respected organizations in the world, inspiring people around the world to open their hearts to the potential of the human heart and spirit. While the Special Olympics is the world’s largest sports organization for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, there continues to be many misconceptions about the athletes who participate in these events and the organization itself. Here are five things you didn’t know about the Special Olympics, an organization that inspires hope, confidence and courage. These little-known facts are sure to inspire you.

How Many It Serves

The Special Olympics is a large organization that serves more than 4.4 million athletes with intellectual disabilities in 175 countries around the world. One of the biggest misconceptions about the Special Olympics is that the sporting event only happens every few years in the U.S. when in fact, it’s global and happening all the time. The network is so large that someone is probably participating in an event somewhere in the world anytime you read this. If these facts haven’t already given you a snapshot of the magnitude in terms of size, the smallest Special Olympics program in the world served 44 athletes, while the largest program served over 1 million athletes. On top of its global reach in terms of sports, the global reach of the Healthy Athletes program makes Special Olympics the largest public health organization in the world for people with intellectual disabilities. How great is that?

Large Volunteer Network

The Special Olympics has a volunteer network of 750,000 around the world and more than 300,000 coaches around the world from all different walks of life. Their roles consist of coaching, training, serving as officials, event organizers, fundraisers and managers. These volunteers can also become Unified Partners, which allows them to play alongside athletes or cheer as fans in the stands. The organization seeks volunteers, who they refer to as heroes, with big hearts, big smiles and big commitments to their mission. Volunteers of the organization are the back bone of the Special Olympics movement. There are also a number of celebrity ambassadors who support the organization and its mission.