Talk:Special Olympics

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Special Olympics

Why is this page newly flagged as having no references? It has quite a few. — Preceding unsigned comment added by KDylan1 (talk • contribs) 02:23, 19 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Is that a real picture of the 2004 Special Olympics winner?

What're the requirements to participate in the special olympics, exactly? Local, national and regional trainings and competitions are open to athletes with intellectual disabilities, ages 8 and up. No charge. There are varying criteria for participation in World Summer or World Winter Games, which happen every two years. KDylan1 (talk) 23:27, 31 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Hello The Official website of the Special Olympics has a general rules document available at:

http://www.specialolympics.com/Special+Olympics+Public+Website/English/About_Us/General+Rules.htm

The following is a quote from that page:

"The General Rules use the phrase “persons with mental retardation” when describing the individuals eligible for participation in Special Olympics. Programs may substitute for that phrase a reference to “mental handicap,” “mental disability,” “intellectual disability” or other phrases approved by Special Olympics, Inc. as provided in Section 10.01, if that alternate terminology is recognized by their respective national governments."

As the parent of an athlete I work with athletes with a wide range of functional levels, including high functioning individuals who hold jobs and are able to drive. If the individual has an intellectual disability which would make participation in maintstream sports difficult or impossible then the Special Olympics should certainly be considered.

Why

Why did Sarajevo or Bosnia give up the rights to host the special olympics, they are stupid turning down an events that cold help their economy.

You assume they did it out of prejudice? The costs involved with preparing for such a competition are only rarely remunerated. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.49.56.12 (talk) 10:01, 12 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Why is this portion in the article? Doesn't have attribution and doesn't have anything to do with the main organization. I suggest deleting this section on Bosnia. — Preceding unsigned comment added by KDylan1 (talk • contribs) 23:48, 8 September 2012 (UTC) kkk[reply]

Revisions

This page and Special Olympic Games duplicate a lot of content, which has led to discussions about merging the two. I think it is more reasonable to remove the duplication and leave two articles, this one focussed on the organization and another focussed on the games. That is the same structure seen for the Olympics and Paralympics, with articles for the IOC and IPC distinct from the games that they organize. I have prepared a revised version of this page and will then move on to Special Olympic Games. Eron 15:37, 17 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Even if you win

The reference to the "Arguing on the Internet is like running in the Special Olympics..." meme is unnecessarily vague. It's not really a meme at all; it's a particular phrase superimposed on a particular picture. One can easily guess why the image of Racer 192 is not included, since it likely is a copyrighted photo, but obfuscating the second half of the couplet seems a concession to good taste/political correctness, which would be better served by not mentioning the phenomenon at all. Asat 00:55, 1 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I agree, but I kind of think it should go; it doesn't belong with the tone or focus of the rest of the article. Far be it from me to be PC (I know everyone says that), but look: Special Olympics jokes are all over the place (and the best can be pretty funny); it's one of the most common off-color joke themes out there. The fact that one of the recent humorous uses of this joke template happened to be an Internet meme doesn't make it noteworthy enough to mention individually, among all the others, in the article on SO. A much better idea, I think, would be to mention the SO's general prominence in humor of this sort; that definitely go in. The other culture references are of more individual interest because they do not fit that particular well-trod theme.205.212.73.217 11:36, 31 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Good work. BTW when did "jokes" become "memes"? Steve Dufour 18:43, 20 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I took off some of the trivia. South Park gets enough mention on WP already and the other 2 did not seem to be notable, being sourced only by their own websites. Steve Dufour 16:22, 21 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Out-dated

It's been updated as of August 2012. I think this talk page needs to be updated.KDylan1 (talk) 23:39, 31 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The article needs to be updated, as there is no mention of the current 2007 Special Olympics in Shanghai, China. Saphius 11:30, 3 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

This article is about the organization called Special Olympics. The event you refer to is the Special Olympics World Games. It is listed on that page, and has its own article linked from there. - Eron ^Talk 11:34, 3 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Whoops, my bad. However, it was very difficult to differentiate between the event and the organisation, unlike with the normal Olympics. Saphius 11:45, 3 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Okay, I'm not sure why. I thought the first paragraph of the article was fairly clear. In any case, I've added a note to the top of the page to reinforce the distinction. - Eron ^Talk 11:46, 3 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

That's skim-reading fer ya... ^^'; end of discussion Saphius 11:59, 3 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

regional games

Doesn't Special Olympics also have regional competiotions? 09MurphyM (talk) 04:56, 10 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, there are local, state, national and regional compeitions, and this is important to know to help distinguish the everyday Special Olympics events to the once-every-two-years World Summer/World Winter Games. The page has now been updated.KDylan1 (talk) 23:27, 31 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Why "Special"?

Why are these competitions called "Special"? To me that connotes Olympic competitions held at irregular times rather than on the regular four-year schedule. Michael Hardy (talk) 18:19, 11 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Special is a commonly used euphemism for people who are mentally differently abled than the average person. --152.65.35.122 (talk) 17:03, 27 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Pointless

I removed the part that reads "They grow mentally, socially and spiritually and, through their activities, exhibit boundless courage and enthusiasm, enjoy the rewards of friendship and ultimately discover not only new abilities and talents but "their voices" as well." from the Special Olympics Inc. section. As far as I can tell absolutely none of this is verifiable, never mind the fact that it is entirely unencyclopedic, emotional and rambling. It also strikes me as rather patronising towards the athletes. Also, this entire sentence adds absolutely nothing to the previous sentence "Children and adults with intellectual disabilities who participate in Special Olympics develop improved physical fitness and motor skills, greater self-confidence and a more positive self-image.". This sentence is entirely sufficient. Enice died on on August 11 2009. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.251.57.195 (talk) 14:36, 1 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]