UCLA to co-host 2015 Special Olympics World Summer Games
The 2015 Special Olympics World Summer Games will be held in Los Angeles for the second time since the event’s inception in 1968. UCLA will host several events, including artistic and rhythmic gymnastics in the John Wooden Center. The events will run from July 25 until Aug. 2. (Courtesy of Special Olympics USA)
By Korbin Placet
July 19, 2015 4:24 p.m.
For the first time since 1999, the Special Olympics is bringing back its flagship event, the World Summer Games, to the United States. The event will take place in Los Angeles, with several events to be held at the UCLA campus.
Back in 2011, Timothy Shriver, the chairman of the board of directors of the Special Olympics, announced that the Summer Games would take place in Los Angeles.
“The (Special Olympics) is not an event but a movement,” Shriver said in the announcement. “Beginning today, Los Angeles is home to our dignity movement.”
The event is now only a week away. With the Opening Ceremony on July 25, about 7,000 athletes and 2,000 coaches from nearly 170 nations have been flying into Los Angeles the past few weeks to prepare for the games. The opening ceremony will be held at USC’s Los Angeles Coliseum and will play host to celebrities and world leaders such as Stevie Wonder, Jimmy Kimmel and First Lady Michelle Obama.
The delegations are set to stay all around the L.A. area during the week before the opening ceremony, taking part in events that promote the organization’s mission as well as the games themselves.
Special Olympics USA is congregating at UC Riverside on July 21 for its pre-games camp. The team will feature 344 athletes and 137 coaches and management team members, and while at UCR, the team will continue to train, perform press duties and bond further.
“The athletes of Special Olympics USA have been training for years for this moment: for the opportunity to showcase their abilities on the biggest competitive stage they’ll ever experience,” said the United States’ head of delegation, Chris Hahn. “When we celebrate the contributions and the wonderful athletic abilities of those with intellectual disabilities – we really reach way beyond the ordinary and the conventional.”
On the day of the opening ceremony, the athletes will be moved into UCLA and USC housing, as the two campuses will serve as the Olympic Village for the 2015 Games.
The World Summer Games will span until Aug. 2, featuring 25 events such as volleyball, basketball and soccer. These events will take place all throughout Los Angeles, with most at venues at UCLA and USC.
The event is expecting more than 500,000 spectators throughout the week, and approximately 30,000 volunteers will help with the production.
The Special Olympics Summer Games have taken place since 1968. The morning before the Opening Ceremony of that inaugural Special Olympics World Summer Games, the founder of the Special Olympics, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, wrote down the phrase: “Let me win. But if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt.”
Today, this phrase is now the championed slogan of the Special Olympics, an organization that strives to create an understanding and inclusive community in all its events.
Last week, California Governor Jerry Brown welcomed the athletes from all over the world at the state capitol, praising the organization’s mission and all it stands for. He said the World Games is “one of the ways that people of profound differences can find their common humanity.”
