Special Olympics: A Movement for Inclusion

On August two, nineteen sixty eight. The Special Olympics was efficiently 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 Shriver, who was a major advocate for individuals with intellectual challenges, 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 help lead the way to the Special Olympics to grow from nothing to what it is today. 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 into sports history every day. And today's trivia question was how many countries were represented at the very first Special Olympics. Now to the nineteen sixties, people with intellectual disabilities or challenges were shunned. There's some horror stories where they were set to live out in attics, in 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. 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 sixties, some people started to change their minds, and one of the most predominant figures at the time was Eunice Kennedy Striver. Now, the Kennedys were a strong family in the United States and they had eight kids, and one of them, Rosemary Kennedy, was labeled as slow and suffered from siezers and mood swings. 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. They were close in 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, but Eunice could understand and translate for everyone. 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 nineteen sixty three, Eunice started Camp Shreiver for kids with intellectual and physical disabilities at her home in Potomac, Maryland, 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 and this grew even more as the President of the United States at the time, John F. Kennedy was on at the time was called Panel for Mental Retardation to promote the involvement of physical activity and other opportunities with people with intellectual disabilities. 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 that were very out of date for today. And then a Canadian physical ad professor, Frank Heyden, contacted the Kennedy Center about an idea he had to hold a national games similar to the Olympics for children with intellectual disabilities, and this idea came to fruition through the support of the Kennedy Foundation and in Chicago on July twenty, nineteen sixty eight, at Souldier Field in Chicago. Over one 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. With a backing of twenty five thousand dollars grant from the Kennedy Foundation, they were able to start their first special Olympics, and at their opening ceremonies, unic Kennedy Shriver gave the opening speech with a quote from original Gladiators for me the original Olympics back in Athens, that said, 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. And these games were embraced by many others as labor unions including carpenters, ironworkers, plumbers, teamsters joined in to help put on the festivities. The Illinois Department of Health Education helped encourage them and endorse the event. Teams marched around with their state flags and banners held high as if it was the Olympic March, and athletes would compete in over two hundred challenging events including swimming, floor, hockey, and track and field. 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. 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 nineteen seventy one, the US Olympic Committee gave the Special Olympics official permission to use the name Olympics, and they decided to hold these games bi annually every two years instead of every four like the Olympics, And in nineteen seventy France sent the first athletes from outside of North America, and by the following Olympics in nineteen seventy two, a total of ten nations had sent Olympic athletes, and in nineteen seventy seven they held their first Winter Special Olympics in Colorado Springs, and in nineteen eighty eight, the Special Olympics were officially recognized by the International Olympic Committee, and the first Games would be held outside of the United States in nineteen ninety three in Salzburg. Austria and other countries are taking the mantle as well 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, and as of twenty twenty three, over two hundred and 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, and athletes of all ability to 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 bringing athletes together to participate, because the more athletes you get to participate, the better athletes and competition there will be. So the next Olympics is going to be held in it in twenty twenty five and in twenty twenty seven it will be held in Chile. If you want to pay attention and try to participate in these events, but if you want to get involved, just go to Special Olympics dot org and you can find a community near you as they are hosting events regularly that you can be involved in. 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, and I've always loved to be able to participate and help in these events. If you want to see sport for the trueness of sport, playing for the joy of the game, I encourage you to attend and volunteer and participate in these events. 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 verbiage in this episode. I know it's changing constantly. Was written in my research. I try to change it whenever I could, but I am sorry for that. Because these these people are not disable. They are able to do a lot of things. As they've shown every year they've hold the Special Olympics, they are able to do many different things, and 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. 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. So let's spread the word about how great the Special Olympics are and come back next week for more Daily sports history and Today's trivia question was how many countries were represented at the very first Special Olympics. The answer the United States and Canada.