Special Olympics USA is a sports organization for children and adults with intellectual disabilities in the United States. It is part of the global Special Olympics movement. The Special Olympics was founded in 1968 with the main goal to accept and welcome individuals as they are. The Special Olympics provides year-round training in Olympic based sports and is based in 170 countries.
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Special Olympics USA National Games
The Special Olympics USA National Games is a Special Olympics event held every four years.
2006 Games
The first, quadrennial, USA National Games were held July 1–8, 2006, in Ames, Iowa. The city of Ames and Iowa State University hosted over 3,000 athletes from all 50 states in 13 sports, including aquatics, basketball, bocce, bowling, golf, artistic gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics, powerlifting, soccer, softball, tennis, track and field, and volleyball. Over 8,000 volunteers were needed to make this event run smoothly. Actor Tom Arnold, originally from Iowa, was the Master of Ceremonies for the Opening Ceremonies, and several other celebrities were at the event as well, including NFL quarterback Kurt Warner and actor Brandon Routh, both also Iowans.
2010 Games
Lincoln, Nebraska hosted the games, July 18–23.
2014 Games
The 2014 USA Games were held from June 14–21 in New Jersey. The Opening Ceremony was held at Prudential Center in Newark. Competition was held at venues throughout Mercer County including The College of New Jersey in the Trenton suburb of Ewing, Rider University, Princeton University and Mercer County Park. The budget for the event exceeded $15M. The Games Founding Partners included 21st Century Fox, Barnabas Health, HESS, KPMG, NJSEA, Prudential, PSE&G, ShopRite, Toys"R"Us and WWE.
Baseball was introduced as a sport at the USA Games for the first time, with four teams — from Alabama, Delaware, New Jersey, and Rhode Island. The gold– and bronze–medal games were played in Arm & Hammer Park in Trenton.
The triathlon was held for the first time.