Thousands of athletes from across the world have gathered in Austria over the past week to celebrate sport, inclusion and community.
ADVERTISEMENTThis Saturday has spelt the end of the Special Winter Olympics the world’s largest sporting competition for children and adults with mental disabilities.
Over the past eight days across Austria, some 2,700 athletes from more than 100 countries took part in a variety of events including speed-skating, floor hockey, alpine and cross-country skiing to snowboarding.
These disciplines (respectively their set of rules and regulations) are arranged in a way that allows as many people with intellectual disabilities as possible to participate and, in accordance with their disability, to compete with other athletes with the approximate same ability level.
“You all are truly the greatest athletes in the world!” –
Schwarzenegger</a> <a href="https://t.co/21JWeI1dKk">pic.twitter.com/21JWeI1dKk</a></p>— Special Olympics (SpecialOlympics) March 24, 2017
As the biggest international sport movement for people with intellectual disabilities Special Olympics worldwide offers all year round training and competition opportunities in 32 different olympic disciplines for more than 4,2 million of athletes in 170 countries.
See you at #AbuDhabi2019! The flag has been turned over from Austria to our 2019 hosts! #austria2017#heartbeatfortheworldpic.twitter.com/w0OrBG12Uo
— Special Olympics (@SpecialOlympics) March 24, 2017