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Scholasticnews Indepth Special Olympics Specialolympics

The Special Olympics have grown significantly since they were first held 35 years ago, with many more participating countries, athletes, sports, and days of competition. While the first Games saw 1,500 athletes from the US and Canada compete in 3 sports over 2 days in Chicago, this year's Games in Dublin will involve 7,000 athletes from over 170 countries competing in 21 sports over 10 days.

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Hirenkumar Shah
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18 views1 page

Scholasticnews Indepth Special Olympics Specialolympics

The Special Olympics have grown significantly since they were first held 35 years ago, with many more participating countries, athletes, sports, and days of competition. While the first Games saw 1,500 athletes from the US and Canada compete in 3 sports over 2 days in Chicago, this year's Games in Dublin will involve 7,000 athletes from over 170 countries competing in 21 sports over 10 days.

Uploaded by

Hirenkumar Shah
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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America's Leading News Source For Kids

TM

Name:
SPECIAL OLYMPICS: THEN AND NOW
How have the Special Olympics changed since they were first held more than three decades ago? Make a
then-and now chart to find out. Use the clues listed below to fill in the missing data on the chart.
For more information from Scholasti c News, go to www. scholastic.com/news or call 1-800-SCHOLASTIC.
THEN NOW
Year Held
Number of Athletes
Location
Number of competing
countries
Number of sports
Number of days
Fast Fact _________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
CLUES

At the first Special Olympics, only the United States and Canada competed. Eighty times as many
nations will compete in this years Special Olympics.

Chicago, Illinois, was the site of the first Special Olympics. This years Games will be held nearly
4,000 miles away, in Dublin, Ireland.

The 2003 Special Olympics World Summer Games will take place over 10 days. The first summer
games lasted only one fifth that number of days.

The first Special Olympics were held 35 years ago.

This year marks the first time the Special Olympics World Summer Games will be held outside the U.S.

This year, about 7,000 athletes are expected to participate in the Special Olympics. Thats 5,500 more
than took part in the first Special Olympics.

Today, Special Olympians compete in 21 sports. At the first Special Olympics, there were one
seventh that number of sporting events.

The first Special Olympics were organized by Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the sister of our 35th
President. She wanted to show that people with mental retardation could be excellent athletes.

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