20 July,2012 09:09 AM IST | | Special Features
>> Anne McGlone Burke, a physical education teacher with the Chicago Park District, began with the idea for a one-time Olympic-style athleticu00a0competition for people with special needs. Burke then approached Eunice Kennedy Shriver, head of the Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation, to fund
the event.
>> The first International Special Olympics Summer Games were held at Soldier Field in Chicago in 1968.
>> The first International Special Olympics Winter Games were held in February 1977 in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, USA.
>> In 1988, the Special Olympics was officially recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
>> It has over 32 Olympic-type individual and team sports that provide meaningful year-round training and competition opportunities to people with intellectual disabilities in more than 170 countries.u00a0
