OPINION: Special Olympics is everything we love about sports
After spending a year covering Division I athletics, I didn't know I'd witness the purest form of athletic competition covering Special Olympics Michigan's 2016 Summer Games.
Special Olympics is designed to break down barriers for athletes with disabilities. By using sports to create awareness through inclusion, the Summer Games display the athletes' strengths and abilities. According to its website, Special Olympics athletes have been diagnosed with either a form of intellectual disabilities, cognitive delays as measured by formal assessment, or significant learning or vocational problems due to cognitive delay that require or have required specially designed instruction.
The SOMI Summer Games, June 2-4, displayed everything we love about sports. It showed the community camaraderie and the reuniting of friends in competition's arena, walking away together with respect.
These athletes weren't playing for a contract, a scholarship or to make a travel team. Last weekend, they played for the pride that comes in the good spirit of competition.
They played for seeing old friend and making new ones, for the anticipation before the starting whistle, the cheers and congratulations at the finish line, the proud parents and for the respect earned. Isn't that why we all started playing?
The competitions aren't cutthroat. There are no coach's challenges or video reviews. There is no cheating. It's just athletes trying to win. If not winning, they are being brave in their attempts.
From a 660 pound deadlift to a walking lap around the track, sports, in its purest form, brought thousands of people together. It brought more than 2,000 volunteers, young and old, to assist making the games possible. It's been bringing some of those same volunteers back for 20, 30 even 40 years and never miss one summer games.
It exceeds Special Olympics' mission statement "to help persons with intellectual disabilities participate as productive and respected members of society at large, by offering them a fair opportunity to develop and demonstrate their skills and talents through sports training and competition, and by increasing the public's awareness of their capabilities and needs."
"When you become knowledgeable about something, you're not as afraid of it. We're afraid of the unknown," said Dr. Jamie Felton, a volunteer at the summer games' Healthy Athlete Village. "The more you learn about something, the more comfortable you are.
