How long does it take to prepare for a marathon? Not long—if you stay ready.
In April 2024, nineteen-year-old Lloyd Martin of Special Olympics Great Britain captured the world’s imagination and a Guinness World Record as the youngest known individual with Down syndrome to complete a marathon. His first marathon. His first race beyond five kilometers. A staggering 26.2 miles. And he did it not just with muscle and stride, but with joy, grit, and grace.
How did he achieve such a feat in just a few short months of training?
The truth is, Lloyd Martin was ready before the starting pistol ever fired.
He brought the spirit of an athlete who had trained for years, not just in sport, but in life. Rain or shine, in chill winds or morning mist, he showed up. Through football and gymnastics, with quiet determination and moments of doubt, he built something no stopwatch can measure: endurance of the soul.
Readiness is never a solo act. It’s a team sport.
Behind every mile Lloyd ran was a network of his people— family, coaches, and friends at Special Olympics Great Britain who helped design a plan. The goal? One more mile each week. A challenging but doable feat. And when the big day came, he danced, he cartwheeled through the streets, and he high-fived spectators along the course, feeding off their joy, energizing each stride he took.
“If there are puddles on the marathon,” he said, “then you have to dodge them... But if you do get them, that’s fine.”
A simple phrase. A profound truth.
Because readiness isn’t about avoiding the puddles of life, it’s about the courage to get your shoes wet and keep running.
This is the spirit of Special Olympics. We stay ready.
Ready to train. Ready to compete. Ready to learn. Ready to lead. Ready to thrive. In every corner of the globe, we give people with intellectual and developmental disabilities the chance to play, to strive, and to shine. We offer structured training and meaningful competition. We provide moments of connection through a loud cheer or a beaming smile and help each other leap over life’s puddles or splash right through them together.
In 2024, we carried forward the legacy of the Special Olympics World Games in Berlin (Berlin Games) and turned our focus toward Turin, where the 2025 Special Olympics World Winter Games await. But a year without a global Games is anything but a year off. Not for our athletes. Not for our movement.
Across more than 200 countries, every 8½ minutes, a Special Olympics competition unfolded somewhere in the world—totaling 60,000 events this year alone.
But this momentum is powered by more than numbers.
It’s built on the devotion of nearly 400,000 coaches and over 800,000 volunteers, individuals who pour their hearts, their expertise, and their time into this global family. They stay ready so our athletes can shine.
And readiness goes far beyond the playing field.
This year, we trained nearly 50,000 healthcare professionals to deliver compassionate, inclusive care to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities—bringing our all-time total to more than 300,000 since 2012. Just like in sport, achieving good health takes commitment, learning, and heart.
Young people are staying ready, too. In 2024, we nearly doubled our network of Special Olympics Unified Champion Schools® (UCS) to 39,000 worldwide. And it doesn’t stop there. From the UAE to Uruguay, from Italy to Indonesia, our Hubs of Excellence are lighting the path forward—helping leaders from over 60 countries embrace inclusive education as the foundation of their future.
With support from His Highness Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the United Arab Emirates has taken a bold stance for global inclusion—hosting the Inclusion for Tomorrow summit, supporting new research, and welcoming over 1,300 changemakers to the Global Virtual Youth and Educator Summit.
We are building communities and workplaces that are not just ready to include, but ready to transform.
Our partnership with Harvard University’s EASEL Lab gives us the tools to do just that: frameworks to nurture inclusive mindsets, to plant seeds of belonging that will bloom in every sector of society.
As the calendar turns, we don’t rest, we rise.
Our athletes are ready.
Ready to show the world their gifts.
Ready to remind every spectator, every coach, every volunteer, and every bystander that this is a movement where everyone belongs.
And they stay ready.
So, here’s the question from all of us in the Special Olympics family:
Are you ready to join them?
Because we’re ready for you.
Timothy Shriver, Chairman Chief
Mary Davis, Executive Officer
