Europe Eurasia

During a moving ceremony in Athens, Greece the Flame of Hope torch was lit by the rays of the sun as the first part of its journey to the Special Olympics World Games Abu Dhabi 2019.

Special Olympics Great Britain and Special Olympics Europe Eurasia recently signed an exciting new partnership with London South Bank University (LSBU), one of London’s largest and oldest universities.

The Global Project Team of the ‘Play Unified. Learn Unified’ project funded by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) had the opportunity to meet and look towards the future of the project under the sunny San Diego skies at the recent Unified Champion Schools Conference.

This year’s annual NBA Cares Special Olympics Unified basketball game during NBA All-Star weekend was full of fun, talent and excitement. Special Olympics assembled 12 international players to gather in Charlotte, NC to represent their countries, cities and a global movement of inclusion. The players were broken up into two teams of five Special Olympics athletes, with intellectual disabilities. Each team was joined by four international sport celebrities without intellectual disabilities to create a “home” and an “away” team for the Unified basketball game.

For people with intellectual disabilities, the word no is often as familiar in their lives as it is unwelcome.

The Special Olympics family has grown a little bigger with the recent announcement that Alain Bernard has joined Special Olympics France as an Ambassador!

Special Olympics Israel athletes are daring Israel’s most famous sports icons to Play Unified with them, and they’re calling on the public to help make it happen!

What a year! Did you know that between 2017 and 2018, almost 90,000 people were involved in Special Olympics health and fitness initiatives across Europe Eurasia?

Petra and Luka Temnikar travelled 140 kilometres across Slovenia to attend a Special Olympics Opening Eyes screening, and it was worth every kilometre!

Special Olympics Slovenia is currently in its second year of a three-year Healthy Communities Project, within which one of the main focuses is healthy lifestyle promotion.

Special Olympics Belgium recently organised a high-level Health Summit calling for immediate action to improve health services for all people with intellectual disabilities (ID) in Belgium.

Youth leaders have worked with Special Olympics Estonia and the Estonian Lacrosse Federation to organise the country's first Youth Unified Lacrosse event!