The Special Olympic Movement: The Vision Of The Special Olympics

History
The Paralympic movement started with the vision of one man, Ludwig Guttmann, (a famous doctor/physician) who organized an athletic competition in the United Kingdom. He began an archery tournament for injured veterans who had lost their use of a leg during World War II, and it was the first competition for wheelchair athletes. It evolved in time to become an international sports meeting in 1952 but was only available for war veterans. Finally, in 1960, 400 athletes from 23 countries competed at the 1960 Games and since then, the Paralympic Games have taken place in the same year as the Olympic Games.

Mission/Goals
The Paralympic movement started with the vision of one man, Ludwig Guttmann, (a famous doctor/physician) who organized

Unlike most typical sporting events, there are no fees for admission and no limitations to skill, gender and also, it does not exclude any athlete based upon qualifying scores or any level of skill, all athletes age 8 and above are welcome to participate in the Special Olympic sporting events. This event takes place every 2 years exchanging between the summer and winter games.

History

This non- profit organization began in the 1950’s and early 1960’s when Eunice Kennedy Shriver (the founder of this organization) saw how people with intellectual disabilities were treated. They were never treated the same as others and were often ignored and neglected, Eunice knew she had to do something about this.She put this belief into action in 1962 when she began inviting young people with intellectual disabilities, to a summer day camp she hosted in her backyard. She called it the "Camp Shriver." Her goal was to explore, learn, and discover the children's skills in a variety of sports and physical activities. Her idea began to grow and became more and more popular until finally, in July 1968, Chicago, Illinois, USA, the first International. Special Olympics Games were held, and about 1,000 athletes