Special Olympics
Empowering Athletes
Supporting the Community
The Special Olympics provides inclusive, year-round training and competitive events in Olympic-style sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities. Its mission centers on promoting physical fitness, courage, and joy, while encouraging athletes to share their talents and build lasting friendships within their communities. Friends of Waxahachie Special Olympics, an independent non-profit, collaborates with WISD to ensure local athletes have the resources and support needed to participate and thrive in Special Olympics programs.
In This Section
Building Connections
The Special Olympics is dedicated to offering year-round training and athletic events across a range of Olympic-style sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities. Its mission is to foster ongoing opportunities for athletes to improve physical fitness, show courage, embrace joy, and share their gifts, talents, and friendships with their families, fellow athletes, and the broader community.
Program Details
Benefits of Participation
There are many benefits to participating as an athlete with Special Olympics Texas:
- Physical exercise positively impacts health, mood, and anxiety.
- Emphasis on sports training helps athletes maintain a healthy weight.
- Athletes participate in activities that enhance their self-esteem and help them see that they can achieve goals that they set for themselves.
- Athletes have many opportunities to make new friends and socialize in an environment that is accepting and encouraging.
Travel opportunities allow athletes to gain life experiences and skills that will positively impact all areas of their lives.
Who can participate?
A person must be identified by an agency or professional as having one of the following:
- Intellectual Disabilities
- Closely related development disability, which means having functional limitations in both general learning and in adaptive skills such as recreation, work, independent living, self-direction, or self-care.
Requirements
- Complete a Medical Release Form signed by a doctor, or ask the athlete’s teacher for a copy. Medicals are good for 3 years if no new conditions arise.
- Local & Area Meets: 8 years and Up
- Local meets for track and field only: 6 years and up
- State: 12 years and up
- Area event participants must attend a minimum of 5 practices. Track and field athletes also must participate in two local meets to attend Area events.
- Adult chaperones are required for weekend meets for all students, and for any other meet where school staff is not available.
- Parents' Meeting to Elect Board Members
Volunteers
Volunteers are the lifeline of the Special Olympics program. These volunteers serve as coaches, officials, committee members, competition assistants, speech coaches, and much more. There are more than 4,051 volunteer coaches involved in the program.
This program is possible solely through volunteer help. Parents and supporters are highly encouraged to volunteer to keep this program growing.
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