Special Olympics began as a grassroots sports movement in 1968. It was founded by Eunice Kennedy Shriver to address the physical, social, and emotional needs of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) and to reduce their social isolation. In 1995, the organization launched Special Olympics Health in response to a stark reality revealed at the World Games at the Yale Bowl in New Haven, Connecticut: nearly 15% of more than 7000 athletes from 143 countries were unable to compete at their best because of an urgent, unmet medical need based on unpublished data from Special Olympics. [AJPH]

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Tragically, these unmet health needs, many of which are preventable or treatable, persist to this day and carry profound consequences. People with IDD, even after controlling for access to care and comorbidities, live an average of 10 fewer years than their neurotypical peers. This gap in life expectancy is approximately twice that of the current difference between Black and White Americans in the United States. Although racial disparities in life expectancy have rightly received sustained public attention and research investment, the disparity affecting people with IDD has not (https://tinyurl.com/4akvvjvw).

Importantly, Special Olympics Health was designed to serve as a bridge to a better health care system, not as a permanent substitute for one. Yet nearly 30 years later, despite delivering more than two million health screenings worldwide, the program’s overall medical referral rate remains close to 15%, according to unpublished data from Special Olympics. This sobering figure indicates that the underlying system-level failures remain largely unaddressed as our volunteers continue to identify unmet or neglected needs.

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