From Backyard Camp to Global Movement:
The Beginnings of Special Olympics
The global Special Olympics movement got its start on 20 July 1968, when the First International Special Olympics Games were held at Soldier Field, Chicago, Illinois, USA. But the concept of Special Olympics was born much earlier, when Eunice Kennedy Shriver started a day camp for people with intellectual disabilities at her home in 1962.
Welcome to Camp Shriver
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Calisthenics on the lawn of the Shriver family home at one of the first Camp Shriver gatherings, which eventually evolved into Special Olympics — now a global movement with more than 2.5 million athletes in more than 165 countries around the world.
• Special Olympics Timeline/Milestones |
Shriver believed that people with intellectual disabilities were far more capable than commonly believed and deserving of the same opportunities and experiences as others. So, in June 1962, she invited 35 boys and girls with intellectual disabilities to Camp Shriver, a day camp at Timberlawn, her home in Rockville, Maryland, to explore their capabilities in a variety of sports and physical activities.
Even before Camp Shriver, Eunice Kennedy Shriver already had a long-standing commitment to people with intellectual disabilities. She was instrumental in focusing the Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation on improving the way society deals with its citizens with intellectual disabilities, and helping identify and disseminate ways to prevent the causes of intellectual disabilities. Shriver is Executive Vice President of the Foundation, which was established in 1946 by her father and mother, Ambassador and Mrs. Joseph P. Kennedy, to honor their eldest son who was killed in World War II.
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Camp Shriver, begun in 1962, offered children with intellectual disabilities a traditional summer camp experience; here campers raise the flag to signal the start of the day. |
Using Camp Shriver as an example, Shriver promoted the concept of involvement in physical activity and competition opportunities for people with intellectual disabilities. Camp Shriver became an annual event, and the Kennedy Foundation gave grants to universities, recreation departments and community centers. In 1963, the Foundation supported 11 similar camps around the United States. By 1969, the Foundation supported 32 camps across the country that served 10,000 children with intellectual disabilities. The movement grew beyond the Kennedy Foundation, and between 1963 and 1968, more than 300 camps similar to Camp Shriver were started.
Let the Games Begin
In the early 1960s, Dr. William Freeberg, then Chairman of the Recreation and Outdoor Education Department at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, Illinois, USA, worked with the Kennedy Foundation to develop one-week workshops for recreation directors across the country. The workshops focused on the principles that everyone, including people with disabilities, benefits from recreation, and everyone has talents and gifts to share with others. In 1965, 10 recreation teachers from the Chicago (Illinois) Park District attended one of Freeberg’s workshops on a grant from the Foundation. One of those teachers was Anne Burke.
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Above, athletes march into Soldier Field for the inaugural World Games in 1968; below Special Olympics Algeria's delegation enters Dublin's Croke Park stadium — more than 6,500 athletes participated in the 2003 Special Olympics World Summer Games. [Top photo, Special Olympics archives. Bottom, Susan Kennedy, IRELAND OUT] |
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By 1967, the Chicago Park District wanted to do more for people with intellectual disabilities and Burke joined a team to assess the needs and how to address them. She proposed holding a citywide track meet modeled after the Olympics to raise awareness of the program. Freeberg, who had joined the team as a consultant, suggested they develop a proposal to submit to Shriver at the Kennedy Foundation.
Shriver immediately saw the potential of the idea and asked Burke to expand its scope to include more sports and athletes from across the United States. Shriver sent Kennedy Foundation staff to Chicago to work with Burke and the Chicago Park District to start planning, and announced that the Kennedy Foundation would provide a grant to underwrite the event. On 20 July 1968, Shriver opened the Chicago Special Olympics (the First International Special Olympics Games), which were held in Chicago's Soldier Field, with 1,000 athletes with intellectual disabilities from 26 U.S. states and Canada competing in athletics, floor hockey and aquatics.
“The Chicago Special Olympics prove a very fundamental fact,” Shriver said in her Opening Ceremonies address, “the fact that exceptional children — children with mental retardation — can be exceptional athletes, the fact that through sports they can realize their potential for growth.” Shriver also announced a new national program — Special Olympics — to offer people with intellectual disabilities everywhere “the chance to play, the chance to compete and the chance to grow.”
Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, who attended the First International Special Olympics Games that day, said to Shriver, “You know, Eunice, the world will never be the same after this.”
Special Olympics today is a global movement with 2.5 million athletes in 165 countries around the world. Follow its growth from 1962 to today in Special Olympics Milestones.
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