Special Olympics: A Movement for Inclusion

[00:00:00] On August 2, 1968, the Special Olympics was officially founded behind the backing of one of America's most popular presidents in John F. Kennedy as it was brought to his attention by his sister, Eunice Kennedy Schriver, who was a major advocate for individuals with intellectual challenges.

[00:00:20] As both her and her brother John, had a sister named Rosemary who had one of these challenges. And this backing from a strong political family helped lead the way to the Special Olympics to grow from nothing to what it is today.

[00:00:34] We're going to go into the background of how it all started today on Daily Sports History. Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Reese, your guide to a rapid deep dive in the sports history every day.

[00:00:51] And today's trivia question was, how many countries were represented at the very first Special Olympics? Now prior to the 1960s, people with intellectual disabilities or challenges were shunned.

[00:01:06] There's some horror stories where they were set to live out in addicts and basements or even shipped off to mental facilities that would take care of them. But really would be a terrible place for them and many times families wouldn't even visit.

[00:01:22] It was a tough time to grow up in for families and for people with these challenges. Many thought that there was no hope for them. They couldn't survive on their own. But in the early 60s, some people started to change their minds.

[00:01:35] And one of the most predominant figures at the time was Eunice Kennedy Schriver. Now the candies were a strong family in the United States. And they had eight kids. And one of them, Rosemary Kennedy was labeled as slow in suffered from seizures and mood swings.

[00:01:52] Doctors told the family that her situation was hopeless. And they actually prescribed her a lobotomy, which left her incapacitated. But one person always stuck by Rosemary and that was Eunice, her sister.

[00:02:05] They were close to an age and she really grew to understand Rosemary on a level that many didn't understand. Rosemary was verbal, but she was very difficult to understand. And but Eunice could understand and translate for everyone.

[00:02:20] And then more and more studies started to come out showing that physical exercise for activity with children with intellectual disabilities had a positive outcome for them overall. And then in 1963, Eunice started camp Shriver for kids with intellectual and physical disabilities at her home in Potomac, Maryland,

[00:02:40] which gave opportunity for kids to participate in athletic events. And this became an annual event and the Kennedy Foundation started to give grants to universities for doing similar camps.

[00:02:52] And this grew even more as the president of the United States at the time, John F. Kennedy was on at a time was called Pano for mental retardation to promote the involvement of physical activity in other opportunities with people with intellectual disabilities.

[00:03:08] I apologize for the term mental retardation. That's what they called it back then. There are terms like that that are still that were used. They were very out of date for today.

[00:03:17] And then a Canadian physical ed professor Frank Hayden contacted the Kennedy Center about an idea he had to hold a national games similar to the Olympics for children with intellectual disabilities.

[00:03:31] And this idea came to fruition through the support of the Kennedy Foundation and in Chicago on July 20, 1968 at shoulder field in Chicago over a thousand athletes came from the United States and parts of Canada for a one day event where they held Olympic style competitions for kids with special needs.

[00:03:50] With a backing of $25,000 grant from the Kennedy Foundation, they were able to start their first special Olympics. And at their opening ceremonies, the U.S. Kennedy Schriver gave the opening speech with a quote from original gladiators from the original Olympics back in Athens that said,

[00:04:08] Let me win, but if I cannot win, let me be brave in my attempt to show that these people weren't here just to participate. They were here to compete. They wanted to win just like everyone else.

[00:04:20] In these games were embraced by many others as labor unions including carboners, iron workers, plumbers, teamsters joined in to help put on the festivities that all in a way.

[00:04:30] And if health education helped encourage the and endorse the event, teams marched around with their state flags and banners held high as if it was the Olympic March. And athletes were competing over 200 challenging events including swimming, floor hockey and track and field.

[00:04:45] They ran, jumped and swam to try to win their Olympic medal. They even had an Olympic village that was held at the LaSalle Hotel where they offered meals and entertainment for the participants. And just like the Olympics, first would win gold, second silver and third bronze.

[00:05:03] And though this was only a one day event, it would go on to change the trajectory of not only the special Olympics, but people all over the world with intellectual challenges. In 1971, the US Olympic committee gave the special Olympics official permission to use the name Olympics.

[00:05:21] And they decided to hold these games by annually every two years instead of every four like the Olympics. In 1970, France sent the first athletes from outside of North America and by the following Olympics in 1972, a total of ten nations had sent Olympic athletes.

[00:05:37] In 1977, they held their first winter special Olympics in Colorado Springs. In 1988, the special Olympics were officially recognized by the International Olympic Committee and the first games would be held outside of the United States. In 1993, in Salzburg, Austria and other countries are taking the mantle as well.

[00:05:59] As Canada, Ireland, Japan, China, Greece, Germany, South Korea, Russia, Italy and Chile and Switzerland have either hosted or are going to host the special Olympics in the future.

[00:06:13] And it has a 2023 over 200 in four countries, and territories are participating in the special Olympics with almost six million athletes participating in summer and winter Olympics. And they offer almost all the same sports as the Olympics with a few tweaks to some of the events.

[00:06:32] And it athletes of all ability level are encouraged to participate and you don't have to just participate in one competition, you can do multiple different activities. In different divisions and receive different awards at different level of competition, as they focused on unifying sports.

[00:06:49] Bringing athletes together to participate because the more athletes you get to participate, the better athletes and competition there will be.

[00:06:56] So the next Olympics is going to be held in Italy in 2025 and in 2027 it will be held in Chile if you want to pay attention and try to participate in these events.

[00:07:07] But if you want to get involved, just go to special Olympics.org and you can find a community near you as they are hosting events regularly that you can be involved in.

[00:07:17] This is something very near and dear to my heart. I grew up around the special Olympics. My mother has been helping individuals with intellectual challenges throughout throughout my entire life,

[00:07:28] And I've always loved to be able to participate in helping these events. If you want to see sport for the trunous of sport playing for the joy of the game, I encourage you to attend and volunteer and participate in these events.

[00:07:41] You will not regret it and I'm excited to see how much it's grown and it will continue to grow. And I'm sorry if I use the wrong wordage and verbage in this episode, I know changing constantly was written in my research.

[00:07:54] I tried to change it whenever I could but I'm sorry for that because these these people are not disabled. They are able to do a lot of things as they've shown every year they've hold the special Olympics.

[00:08:06] They are able to do many different things. I'm so glad this has helped bring light to the community and that we don't just shun special individuals like we did before. We are allowing them to thrive and grow and participate in many different things.

[00:08:22] So if you like this, please share it. Spread the word about the special Olympics. It's a great organization and I would love for it to get even more popular.

[00:08:30] Let's spread the word about how great this special Olympics are and come back next week for more daily sports history. In today's trivia question was how many countries were represented at the very first special Olympics? The answer to the United States and Canada.