Special Olympics

pl.n. A program of competitive sports events fashioned after the Olympic Games and intended for athletes with intellectual disabilities.

Spe′cial Olym′pics

n. an international athletic competition for the handicapped, founded in 1968 and featuring events and games modeled on the Olympics. Spe′cial Olym′pian, n.

Thesaurus

Noun

Special Olympics - an athletic contest modeled after the Olympic Games but intended for mentally or physically handicapped personsathletic competition, athletic contest, athletics - a contest between athletes

Special Olympics

Special Olympics:

see Shriver, Eunice Mary KennedyShriver, Eunice Mary Kennedy,
1921–2009, American philanthropist and advocate for the intellectually disabled, b. Brookline, Mass., grad. Stanford (1943); she was a daughter of Joseph P. Kennedy and a sister of President John F. Kennedy and Senators Robert F.
..... Click the link for more information. .

Special Olympics

February and June-JulyThe Special Olympics is an international program of year-round sports training and athletic competition for more than one million children and adults with mental retardation. It was founded by Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who organized the first International Special Olympics Summer Games at Soldier Field in Chicago in 1968. Five years earlier, Shriver had started a day camp for people with mental retardation, and she quickly saw that they were far more capable in sports and physical activities that many experts thought.
Today, athletes from 160 countries participate in local, national, and international competitions in 26 summer and winter sports, such as basketball, cycling, gymnastics, soccer, floor hockey, alpine skiing, figure skating, and aquatics. There are Special Olympics chapters in all 50 states of the U.S., and about 25,000 communities have Special Olympics programs. The Special Olympics World Summer Games are held every four years in early summer (June-July) and the Special Olympics World Winter Games are held every four years in February. The president of the United States often attends the opening ceremonies, during which the Special Olympic Cauldron is lit.
CONTACTS:
Special Olympics International
1133 19th St. N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20036
202-628-3630; fax: 202-824-0200
www.specialolympics.org
(c)

Special Olympics

Special Olympics

Spe′cial Olym′pics

Special Olympics

Special Olympics:

Special Olympics

Special Olympics

Special Olympics

Words related to Special Olympics

noun an athletic contest modeled after the Olympic Games but intended for mentally or physically handicapped persons

Related Words