History of the Special Olympics

Special Olympics In the early 1950s Ms. Eunice Shivers observed how kids who was a little different being mistreated and how they did not have any place to go and play and just be kids. She took it upon herself to start a camp for kids with disabilities in her own backyard. The mission was to see how the kids interacted with one another when involved in sports and other activities, instead of just focusing on what they could not do. Throughout the 1960s, Eunice Kennedy Shriver continued her pioneering work -- both as the driving force behind President John F. Kennedy's White House panel on people with intellectual disabilities and as the director of the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation. Her hard work and strive soon turned in the Special Olympics Movement. Eunice and Sargent Shriver begin series of fact-finding trips around the U.S. to institutions for people with intellectual disabilities. They start recruiting experts in the field to advise the JPK Jr. Foundation in a push for swifter progress in helping children and adults with ID and their families.
The Special Olympics was founded by Eunice Kennedy Shivers in 1968. Mr. Shivers wanted to make all people enjoy sports no matter their mental and physical ability. The Special Olympics is the world’s largest organization for adults and children with intellectual disabilities. The Special Olympics provides training and competition to over four million athletes in one hundred and seventy countries, these competitions are held every day!
The first International Special Olympics game was held in Chicago, Illinois at Soldier Field in 1968. An outstanding one thousand individual with intellectual disabilities from 26 U.S. states and Canada compete in track and field and swimming. The 1968 games included track and field, swimming and diving, and a variety of other sports, setting the stage for the Special Olympics World Games to come in later years. When needed extra help was provided for those athletes who required