North America

David Johnston has many talents when it comes to playing sports. An athlete in several disciplines, Johnston, starting in 1988, competed in alpine skiing, five-pin bowling, snowshoeing, and many more; however, he says five-pin bowling and powerlifting are his “special sports.” “I got involved with Special Olympics when I was in school and I was put down all my life,” Johnston says about his start. “So, I found out about Special Olympics and how they accepted people and how we get the opportunity to compete.”

Special Olympics Missouri Athlete and Global Health Messenger Allen Tobin Talks About the Benefits of Healthy Athletes and Inclusive Health at the 2023 APHA Annual Meeting.

Among the racers was Special Olympics Texas runner Kayleigh Williamson who made history as one of the first women with Down syndrome to complete the NYC Marathon (10:09:11).

When Pleskow is not swimming in the Potomac River alongside her mom or running on the track, she can be found within the walls of Brightspot—a software development company just outside the nation’s capital in Reston, Virginia.

Thomas Cleek has been playing golf for as long as he can remember. The pairing—Cleek and golfing—was just one of those things that was meant to be.

Special Olympics, ATScale, CBM Christian Blind Mission, Clinton Health Access Initiative, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), and Missing Billion Initiative, made a strong impression at the recent World Health Summit (WHS) held in Berlin earlier this week.

Just a few miles down the road from their Detroit homes, history was made for a group of students from the Drew Transition Center.

JR sits down with Albert Dorsey and Demetric Desue from Special Olympics to hear about their journey as Special Olympics athletes, why the Inclusion Revolution is so important, how they have continued to help out behind the scenes of Special Olympics, and more!

A recap of week 1 of the 2023 Coach Webinar Series, presented by Gallagher.

The final webinar of the 2023 Coach Webinar Series, presented by Gallagher. This webinar was all about being adaptable as a coach and keeping adult athletes engaged in a challenging environment. This webinar was hosted by football referee and Special Olympics Washington Athlete Leader, Garrett Utz. Garrett has officiated at 1 USA Games, 2 Unified Cups, and 2 World Games. Garrett also holds multiple leadership positions and is also an Athlete Advisor for the Sport and Competition team in Special Olympics International. Garrett was joined by Gallagher’s Scott Gregory who sits on the board of Special Olympics Southern California and is an active Special Olympics coach. Thomas Graham from the Newcastle United Foundation gave us an overview of the development of their walking football programme and how this could be applied to Special Olympics contexts. Ken Black, co-founder of the Inclusion Club, then presented on the STEP Model (Space, Task, Equipment, People) and how to adapt your coaching to continually challenge athletes no matter the ability level. To close out the webinar, there was a very passionate and inspiring message from Special Olympics supporter and former US Men’s National Team player and current Vice President of Sporting for US Soccer, Oguchi Onyewu.