Special Olympics Healthy Athletes Progress Report
From the Global Director, Mark L. Wagner, DMD
 Healthy Athletes continues in good health and worldwide growth continued throughout 2005. More than 525 screening events took place and nearly 125,000 athletes received at least one screening during the year.
Each of the Healthy Athletes disciplines continued to expand, with Health Promotion, FUNfitness and Fit Feet showing the greatest rate of growth. Special Olympics provided over 300 Healthy Athletes Program Capacity Grants amounting to nearly US$1.5 million to support Healthy Athletes activities. 
Other grant activity continued through Health Promotion Pilots (student grants) and new Program Development and Impact Grants. Med Fests exploded on the scene in a big way, with 24 events held in the United States, Africa, Latin America and Asia. Nearly 25,000 new athletes have been enrolled as a result of this initiative.
The 2005 Special Olympics World Winter Games in Nagano, Japan, set new standards for screening and volunteer participation. More than 4,000 screenings were conducted at the Games and more than 1,200 athletes received at least one health screening. Train-the-trainer events added over 200 new Clinical Directors.
Worldwide, training occurred in every Special Olympics region in 2005. Most heartwarming was the 30 percent increase in volunteer health professional participation.
At last count, nearly 13,000 professionals donated their time and talent to Special Olympics Healthy Athletes.
Upcoming events include the first-ever USA National Games in Ames, Iowa, in July 2006. In addition, Healthy Athletes will have a presence at the Latin America Regional Games in El Salvador in March, the European Youth Games in Rome in September, the Shanghai (China) Pre-Games in October, and literally hundreds more opportunities in national, provincial and state Games to bring Healthy Athletes to our outstanding athletes.
>> Return to Healthy Athletes Update, Winter 2006
|
