Stories From the Field of Play

With support from Optometry Giving Sight, three trainees from Special Olympics Nevada, Tennessee, and Florida completed a Clinical Director Train-the-Trainer program at the 2026 Special Olympics USA Games from 18-20 June in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The Special Olympics Sweden Invitational Games 2026 will be officially opened in Folkets Park, Malmö, marking the largest sporting event ever held in Sweden for people with intellectual disabilities.

An intensive training program focused on leadership, inclusion, and personal development awaited members of the Special Olympics Middle East/North Africa Regional Athlete Leadership Council.

She had a keynote speech to give. She was in an unfamiliar city for just a few hours. Bright spotlights shined upon her. In a grand meeting room, 350 leaders from across Europe faced her.

XiaoBai had an hours-long journey tolast year’s training in Beijing, simply because the city is so big. The 2025 training voyage was longer still.

Members of the new Asia Pacific Regional Athlete Leadership Council had several days of onboarding training in July 2025.

Welcome to a more inclusive Chile! 🥇🇨🇱 Welcome to the Special Olympics World Games Santiago 2027! ------------------------------------------ Bienvenidos a un Chile más inclusivo! 🥇🇨🇱 ¡Bienvenidos a los Juegos Mundiales de Olimpiadas Especiales Santiago 2027!

Millions of people with intellectual disabilities still face disparities and a lack of quality education, health, and access to sport experiences every day.

Staged under fluorescent lights, an orderly arrangement of turf courts hosts their competition: Special Olympics USA Games bocce athletes and Unified partners, athletes without intellectual disabilities. The courts are identical in nature, with their regulation ball sets, a measuring device, scoreboard and pallino, the target ball players aim to throw closest to in order to score. Only when the athletes enter its confines, does the court begin to change shape, each containing a story of unwavering focus, of overcoming.

Special Olympics Kenya officially launches Unified with Refugees program at Decathlon Store and announces powerful new partnership with the Decathlon Foundation in Nairobi on the eve of World Refugee Day.