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The light of Special Olympics
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A program by Special Olympics allows youth with and without intellectual disabilities to become leaders and create opportunities for them.

People with intellectual disabilities (ID) have often lacked the chance to show their abilities and be included with people without ID due to low awareness, low expectations, and negative attitudes. Special Olympics is a worldwide movement that seeks to change this through the power of sport.

Special Olympics Unified

Special Olympics Unified Sports® is an inclusive sports program that creates teams of youth with and without ID to promote inclusion and empowerment. In Unified Sports, all participants have the opportunity to develop, demonstrate, and contribute their skills and to work together across differences.

Special Olympics has also created the Unified Leadership approach to take these lessons from the field of play into the community and break down barriers all people to have mutual learning opportunities and mutual respect. Building from sport, Unified Leadership teaches youth of all abilities to value and learn from each other and creates environments where people with ID can succeed in meaningful roles.

Around the world, youth with and without ID are participating in Unified Sports and Unified Leadership through the Special Olympics Unified Schools program. These programs unleash the potential of young people with and without ID and create more opportunities for them to learn from each other. Everyone can be a leader when participating in the activities. People with ID are encouraged to be leaders and come up with new ideas for inclusion.

In China, there are more than 300 Unified Schools now. Thousands of students from primary school to university are joining Unified programs to lead change and promote inclusion. The stories of two youth leaders with and without ID show just how powerful the experience of participating in Unified Sport and leadership activities can be.

Liu Xing

Liu Xing, a graduate of Yanglingzi Special Education School in Hangzhou, China, now works as a pastry chef. Before he took part in Special Olympics, he was too shy to talk to others because of the lack of confidence. His instructor, Miss Guo, took him to many sports activities when he was in school, including running, long jump, basketball, badminton, and he played for his school many times.

In 2016, she also took him to the Special Olympics East Asia Youth Leadership Training Camp in Beijing. This experience was unprecedented for him. He realized that he could put forward and express his views like others. Later, no matter whether he was in his sports training or daily life, Liu began to bravely speak his mind, and encouraged other students around him to challenge themselves. He is always ready to give a hand when his partners need help. There will be a basketball game later 2021 and Liu Xing hopes to give full play to the role of a leader and try his best to win with his teammates.

Gao Genmao

Inclusive youth leadership has brought great changes to many Special Olympics athletes. Besides them, youth without ID are also experiencing the changes brought about by the program, and I am one of them.

I am a graduate student from the University of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. I have been a Special Olympics volunteer and Unified Partner with Special Olympics since 2015, participating multiple events and trainings. During this period, I learned how to work, talk, and even live with people with different cultural backgrounds and lifestyles. More importantly, I also learned to understand the differences of others, respect different opinions, work with them, and view the world from a more equity perspective.

I am now taking my experiences with Special Olympics and utilize my professional knowledge to study the impact of social media on people with ID, with the support of a Youth Innovation Project grant from funded by Special Olympics International. The study used in-depth interviews to explore the Internet use of students with ID.

I found that the Internet can also play a positive role in broadening their horizons, improving their social skills and characteristic shaping – what people see on the internet influences how they behave and treat others. Especially in the midst of COVID, the internet brings advantages to people with ID.

Special Olympics has provided a lot of sports and leadership opportunities digitally, benefitting youth both with and without ID. Given the chance to learn and practice online, our youth network keeps growing and we are ready to apply these knowledge and skills in the future when face-to-face activities resume.

At the same time, my team and I also hope to record the daily and training pictures of people with ID on the sport field and share these through videos. No matter in real life or on social media, I try my best to raise public awareness about the Special Olympics movement. I hope to draw more people’s attention to people with ID and reduce people's misperceptions and prejudice against this group.

Looking ahead

Liu Xing and I are two of the many participants of Unified Sports and inclusive youth leadership programs. Unified Sports is a platform, bringing young people from different backgrounds together in a setting where everyone is equal, fighting for the same goal. People with and without ID have the opportunity to demonstrate their own talents.

We are happy to see more youth from different fields, both with and without ID, are joining the movement and creating a more inclusive and barrier-free society through their own efforts.

­___________________________________________________________________________

Gao Genmao (Leo) is a graduate student at the University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. He is graduating with his master’s degree and his research is about international communication and media socialization. Influenced by Special Olympics, he wants to study its impact specifically on people with intellectual disabilities. Leo is also an active Special Olympics volunteer and Youth Leader. He has participated in many Special Olympics East Asia activities, such as the 2016 China-US Youth Exchange Program for Special Olympics and 2019 SOEA Youth Leadership Summit. Leo is also leading a Special Olympics Global Youth Innovation Project in his community.

Tags

Country
China
Region
Asia
Sport
All sports
Sustainable Development Goals
10 – Reduced inequalities
Target Group
Youth
Persons with disabilities

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