Special Olympics, founded in 1968 by Eunice Kennedy Shriver, is the world’s largest sports organization for children and adults with mental handicaps of all ability levels. More than 1 million athletes in 150 countries train and compete in 26 Olympic-style winter and summer sports at local, national and international events. Through its sports programs, Special Olympics strives to provide long-term benefits to individuals’ health, self-esteem and social integration.

Since 1999, a project has been under way to involve physical education instructors at universities in the Baltics, East Europe, the Caucasus, Central Asia and Asia in Special Olympics with the aim of bringing more people with mental handicaps into the organization, and, at the same time, attracting volunteers to implement the organization’s wide range of activities.

The Special Olympics Adapted Physical Education Project was started by Mariusz Damentko, sports director, Special Olympics Europe/Eurasia (SOEE). Damentko wanted physical education training in Eastern Europe and Central Asia to focus on children with special needs which until then did not. He also knew that physical education departments were an invaluable resource for recruiting volunteer coaches for Special Olympics.

Selected university teachers agreed to attend two instructional seminars, introduce an adapted physical education course or program in their university and organize Special Olympics events. This included recruiting and training volunteers and providing sports facilities for events.

The seminars provided information on Special Olympics and adapted physical education and, included visits to local facilities for children with mental handicaps and practical sessions with the children. The first set of seminars was held in Warsaw, Poland in 1999 and in Groningen, the Netherlands in 2000.

A second series of seminars was held in 2001 in Ukraine, Latvia and Kazakhstan, with a follow-up seminar held in June 2002 in Poznan, Poland. In Ukraine, Yuriy Briskin, a lecturer at the Faculty of Olympic Sports, Lvov University, introduced two courses on Special Olympics to the curriculum. “Our faculty and students understood high-level sports and sports for people with physical disabilities, but they did not know anything about sports for people with mental handicaps. Having a concept like Special Olympics made it easier to introduce to the establishment and it captured the interest of students,” said Briskin. To date, 280 students have taken the courses.

In Latvia, Aija Klavina, a lecturer at the Latvian Academy of Sport Education in Riga, said that the project gave her the tools to start changing societal attitudes about people with mental handicaps, particularly those who are severely disabled. “Students who organize sports events understand the profound impact they can have as they see parents discover what their children are capable of achieving,” she said.

In Kazakhstan, the project was the catalyst to recruit more coaches regionally, according to Olga Bakhareva, Special Olympics Central Asia coordinator. “Once the professors had the chance to see the benefits of adapted physical education – which did not exist in the country until then – and that we had a comprehensive program to offer them, they became enthusiastic. Throughout the country, we have been able to establish highly cooperative relationships between the universities and Special Olympics regional programs,” she said.

In Tajikistan, 250 students from the Institute of Physical Culture in Dushanbe and four other regions have become volunteers. “There is great interest among students to contribute to society and they have begun to do so by volunteering their time as coaches at the internats (boarding schools),” said Dilorom Karimova, a lecturer at the institute.

As a reflection of the impact the project has had in Central Asia, 250 students from the Institute of Physical Culture in Almaty volunteered during the first large-scale Special Olympics regional Games that were held in September 2002 in Almaty. The Games attracted 500 Special Olympics athletes from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

During the 2003 Special Olympics World Games, the largest sporting event held that year, which attracted 7,000 Special Olympics athletes from around the globe, the third adapted physical education seminar was held and attended by 13 university directors from the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Russia, Ukraine, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.

Also in 2003, a seminar was organized in Ljubljana, Slovenia for the Balkan region with professors from Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia and Montenegro, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo participating. The second seminar phase for this region will be held in Sarajevo, Bosnia, during the first-ever Southeast Europe Games in April, 2004.

The results of the adapted physical education project have been impressive. The initiative has been incorporated into physical education programs in over 50 universities in Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia, Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Latvia, Lithuania, FRY Macedonia, Moldova, Poland, Russia, Slovenia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. More than 100 university teachers have been trained, resulting in the introduction of the Special Olympics philosophy to over 7,000 university students. This also has resulted in the creation of nearly 400 Special Olympics events, benefiting over 12,000 new Special Olympics athletes.

The adapted physical education project is an integral component of the Special Olympics development plan to reach one million new athletes by 2005. Future plans include seminars in China, Turkey, Romania and western Europe. It is projected that the Special Olympics university project will provide sports training and competition opportunities for 15,000 Special Olympics athletes in Europe and Eurasia and 50,000 athletes in China by 2005. A cooperative research project to examine the effects of the project on the attitudes of the university students toward individuals with mental handicaps is currently underway between university professors.

Damentko said he received support throughout the project from Dr. Glenn Roswal, Jacksonville State University in Alabama, USA; Billye Cheatum, Ph.D., retired professor of Adapted Physical Education; and Special Olympics colleagues Malinda Quinlan, inclusion specialist; Miroslaw Krogulec, sports and program coordinator; Krzysztof Krukowski, director, organizational development; George Smith, vice president, Special Olympics East Asia, and Special Olympics Poland staff.

For information on the adapted physical education project, contact Mariusz Damentko at mdamsoce@it.com.pl. For information on Special Olympics, visit the web site at www.specialolympics.org.