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There are 6,055 results that match your search. There are 6,055 results that match your search.
Athletes

Caley Versfelt Breaks Barriers in Hollywood

By RJ Nealon, February 22, 2021
Caley Versfelt sits a director’s style chair with her name on it of The Good Doctor with a smile on her face.
Caley Versfelt guest stars in an episode of ABC's The Good Doctor. As a person with an intellectual disability, she represents just 3% that is employed in the entertainment industry.
Athletes

Special Olympics Athlete Out to Shatter Stereotypes

Miriam on a white horse entering an arena area.
Mariam Adel Azzab, the 32-year-old was born in a challenging time for a child with Down Syndrome, it was a time of exclusion, judgment and negative perceptions.

Rachel Chircop

Rachel Chircop - SO Malta, Health Messenger
Special Olympics Malta
Athletes

“At the End of the Race, he Wants to Keep Going!”: Slovenia’s Uroš Kotnik has a Need For Speed!

By Karini Viranna , March 14, 2025
A man cross country skis in a competition. A mountainside and many trees are visible
For Uroš Kotnik, a three-time gold-medalist, forward is the only way ahead.

Micheline Van Hees

400x400 - Micheline GAIC.jpg
Micheline Van Hees is from Hoeilaart, a small town in Belgium. She joined Special Olympics Belgium more than 10 years ago. Although a former swimmer, she is now into bocce. In her sport club she is also a respected assistant coach in swimming and athletics. Micheline is an active member of the Board of Directors for Special Olympics Belgium. On an international level she takes part into the European Eurasia Leadership Council, European Athlete Input Council and now also the Global Athlete Input Council. She loves to speak to other athletes so she can represent them on a higher level. That is also her aim for the GAIC, to represent the European athletes in the best possible way. In 2014, Micheline was chosen to be one of the 14 athlete ambassadors of the Special Olympics European Summer Games that were organized in 2014 in Antwerp, Belgium. Even now she has remained a strong ambassador for the Belgian organization. In her spare time she volunteers in a local senior home close to where she lives.
Special Olympics Europe Eurasia

Tȕrkiye

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Special Olympics is a global organization that serves athletes with intellectual disabilities working with hundreds of thousands of volunteers and coaches each year. Since the establishment of Special Olympics in 1968, the number of people with and without intellectual disabilities who are involved with the organization has been growing, but the unmet need to reach more people with intellectual disabilities is staggering.

It’s at the local level—right here—where interested volunteers meet the athletes. That’s where the perceptions start to change and where the miracle of transformation takes place.

Special Olympics provides year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-type sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities. Those activities give them continuing opportunities to develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage, experience joy and participate in a sharing of gifts, skills and friendship.

Download the Special Olympics Tȕrkiye Fact Sheet.
Programs

Ecuador

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Special Olympics is a global organization that serves athletes with intellectual disabilities working with hundreds of thousands of volunteers and coaches each year. Since the establishment of Special Olympics in 1968, the number of people with and without intellectual disabilities who are involved with the organization has been growing, but the unmet need to reach more people with intellectual disabilities is staggering.

It’s at the local level--right here--where interested volunteers meet the athletes. That’s where the perceptions start to change and where the miracle of transformation takes place.

Special Olympics provides year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-type sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities. Those activities give them continuing opportunities to develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage, experience joy and participate in a sharing of gifts, skills and friendship.

Download the Special Olympics Ecuador FactSheet (PDF)
Special Olympics Europe Eurasia

Ireland

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Special Olympics Ireland is a sports organization for people with an intellectual disability, but it provides athletes with far more than the physical benefits of sport. Special Olympics changes lives. Through sport, athletes develop both physically and emotionally, they make new friends, realize their dreams, and know they can fit in. Special Olympics Ireland enables our athletes to achieve and win not only in sport but in life too.


It’s at the local level—right here—where interested volunteers meet the athletes. That’s where the perceptions start to change and where the miracle of transformation takes place.

Special Olympics provides year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-type sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities. Those activities give them continuing opportunities to develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage, experience joy and participate in a sharing of gifts, skills and friendship.

Download the Special Olympics Ireland Fact Sheet.
Programs

Puerto Rico

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Special Olympics is a global organization that serves athletes with intellectual disabilities working with hundreds of thousands of volunteers and coaches each year. Since the establishment of Special Olympics in 1968, the number of people with and without intellectual disabilities who are involved with the organization has been growing, but the unmet need to reach more people with intellectual disabilities is staggering.

It’s at the local level—right here—where interested volunteers meet the athletes. That’s where the perceptions start to change and where the miracle of transformation takes place.

Special Olympics provides year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-type sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities. Those activities give them continuing opportunities to develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage, experience joy and participate in a sharing of gifts, skills and friendship.

Download the Special Olympics Puerto Rico FactSheet (PDF)
Athletes

GOING ALL InCLUSIVE IN 2023

By Renee Manfredi, January 21, 2023
Two women stand behind a sign that says #MeetTheDetermined.
Happy New Year, everyone! Can you believe it is 2023?! It’s so hard to imagine that four years in my role as an SSIGM have already gone by. I can honestly say these years have certainly been filled with adventure and the unexpected.
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