Special Olympics Great Britain (SOGB) is a sporting organisation for children and adults with intellectual disabilities that operates in
England,
Scotland and
Wales. It is part of the global
Special Olympics movement. Great Britain is represented at the
Special Olympics World Games and the Special Olympics Great Britain National Games are held on a four year cycle.
History
Initially known as Special Olympics UK, it was founded in 1978 by Chris Maloney
MBE Mbe may refer to:
* Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo
* Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria
* Mbe language, a language of Nigeria
* Mbe' language, language of Cameroon
* ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language
Molal ...
and at the time, was one of the first European programmes of the international Special Olympics movement. Special Olympics GB was established on 8 August 1979, the year Great Britain made its début at the
Special Olympics World Games in Brockport, United States.
Organisation
Special Olympics GB creates opportunities for children and adults with
learning (intellectual) disabilities to take part in various sports training and competition year-round.
Special Olympics is often confused with the
Paralympics
The Paralympic Games or Paralympics, also known as the ''Games of the Paralympiad'', is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of physical disabilities, including impaired muscle power and impaired ...
, which is for elite athletes with physical and/or intellectual disabilities.
To be eligible to take part in the Special Olympics GB programmes, participants would have to have an IQ of 75 and below. There are currently 140 Special Olympics clubs in Great Britain, run by over 4,000 volunteers, and involving 10,000 athletes who benefit from taking regular sport training and competitions programmes.
Special Olympics GB has a charitable status and has been receiving donations and funding from individuals as well as corporate partners.
National Grid, Coca-Cola GB, ABB and
Lions Clubs International are some of the long-term official partners of the charity.
Special Olympic GB Ambassadors from the world of sports and entertainment help to raise funds and build awareness of the charity's work throughout Great Britain.
Special Olympics GB includes former Southampton football manager
Lawrie McMenemy, Olympic Champion athlete
Darren Campbell, former NBA basketball legend
John Amaechi, TV beauty and style guru Armand Beasley.
Special Olympics GB offers 28 different individual and team sports that provide meaningful training and competition opportunities for people with intellectual (learning) disabilities.
Special Olympics GB has an extensive network of clubs operating in 19 regions throughout England, Scotland and Wales.
All the clubs and competitions are run solely by an army of dedicated volunteers.
Great Britain at the Special Olympics World Games
Athletes representing Great Britain have participated in the both the summer and winter editions of the
Special Olympics World Games.
Summer
Source:
Winter
Source:
Special Olympics Great Britain National Games
The Special Olympics Great Britain National Games are held every four years. The 2021 edition was postponed as a result of the global
Covid-19 pandemic and a venue and dates are to be determined.
Editions
Teams
Athletes compete as part of twelve regional teams;
East Midlands
The East Midlands is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. It comprises the eastern half of the area traditionally known as the Midlands. It consists of Leicestershire, Derbyshire, Li ...
,
East of England
The East of England is one of the nine official regions of England. This region was created in 1994 and was adopted for statistics purposes from 1999. It includes the ceremonial counties of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire ...
,
Greater London
Greater may refer to:
*Greatness, the state of being great
*Greater than, in inequality (mathematics), inequality
*Greater (film), ''Greater'' (film), a 2016 American film
*Greater (flamingo), the oldest flamingo on record
*Greater (song), "Greate ...
,
North West England
North West England is one of nine official regions of England and consists of the ceremonial counties of England, administrative counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. The North West had a population of ...
,
Northern England,
Scotland,
South East England,
South West England,
Southern England,
Wales,
West Midlands
West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth.
Etymology
The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...
,
Yorkshire and the Humber.
References
External links
Official website
{{Special Olympics
Special Olympics
Sports organisations of the United Kingdom
Parasports organizations
Disability organisations based in the United Kingdom
1978 establishments in the United Kingdom
Sports organizations established in 1978