Module Summary

In this topic we’re going to learn about what makes Special Olympics different to other sports organisations. We do things in our own way to give everyone involved the best experience possible.

Click or tap Play on the video above to find out more. Remember, you need to watch all of the videos in order to complete this section.

Special Olympics and Paralympics - what's the difference?

The general public can something get confused about the difference between Special Olympics and the Paralympics, so let's have a look at the differences between the two.

Who are the athletes?

The Paralympics offers competition for elite athletes who have visual and physical impairments, while also offering a small amount of sports to those with intellectual impairments. Special Olympics, on the other hand, offers training and competition opportunities specifically for athletes with intellectual disabilities of all ability levels, although some may also have physical and sensory impairments.

The sports

The two organisations offer different sports to their athletes. Paralympic competitions feature some sports that are specifically designed for people with physical impairments, such as sitting volleyball, para dance sport, and wheelchair curling or events designed for athletes with visual impairments such as tandem bicycle events. Special Olympics offers a slightly wider range of sports which covers well known sports such as athletics, tennis, and football, but also includes less common sports such as Bocce, floor hockey and snow shoeing.

Athlete grouping

One of the most significant differences between the two organisations is how they group athletes for competition. In Paralympic sport, elite athletes are grouped for competitions based on the degree and type of physical or sensory impairment. The athletes with the best performances progress through levels of competitions. Special Olympics, however, is open to athletes of all ability levels. Athletes are grouped by their ability level (as measured by sport performance) and progression to the next level of the competition features an element of random selection.

Governance

The two organisations are governed by entirely separate bodies: the International Paralympic Committee and Special Olympics International. The International Paralympic Committee is a member of the International Olympics Committee, and Special Olympics is recognised by the International Olympics Committee.

What is divisioning?

At Special Olympics competitions, all athletes are given an equal chance to participate, perform, and be recognised for doing their best by their teammates, family, and fans. This happens through a unique process called divisioning. This video should explain the basic principles of the process.

The two stages

At Special Olympics competitions, all athletes are given an equal chance to participate, perform and be recognised for doing their best by their teammates, family and fans. This happens through a unique process called divisioning.

Athletes are grouped by age, gender and ability – giving everyone a reasonable chance to win. You can see divisioning in action in all sports, including athletics, football, table tennis, skiing and gymnastics.

Special Olympics divisioning is a two-stage process.

Stage 1

Stage 1 usually happens ahead of World Games competition.

For individual sports, coaches submit a time or distance for each athlete. For team or judged sports (like basketball or gymnastics), coaches submit athlete or team ratings and/or skills assessments.

Stage 2

Stage 2 usually happens in the opening days of World Games.

Divisioning races, judged events or short team matches are held to assess the athletes’ or teams’ ability levels in competition.

Athletes or teams are then grouped into competitive divisions according to three criteria: age, gender and ability level.

How we divide athletes

As mentioned in the video, there are three criteria that we use to divide athletes into divisions. Here's a closer look at the process.

Gender

First, athletes are divided by gender.

Age

Then they are divided by age.

Ability

Athletes’ are then divided into divisions that follow these rules:

• No more than a 15% difference between highest and lowest entry score.
• A minimum of three athletes and a maximum of eight.

Challenges

The process can sometimes result in divisions that only have one or two athletes. In this case, the rules allow us to make some changes to the process.

Option A: Either expand the age range or combine genders.

Health and safety are our priority, but if this can be done without any risk to our athletes then it’s a good way of ensuring divisions are large enough to be a part of the competition.

Option B: Expand the ability range.

If we do expand the ability range, we must ensure that this poses no health and safety risk to the athletes competing.

Previous Next

Advancement

Before each Special Olympics competition, the organisers set a quota for the number of athletes that the sport or event can accommodate. Each country, region, or club/school receives a portion of this quota. The quota is almost always smaller than the number of athletes at the previous level of competition (remember, there are usually multiple competitions at the previous level!) As with most sport events, this means that not everyone can go through to the next level. To decide who will go through, Special Olympics has a clear advancement process outlined in Sports Rules Article 1 (Section 13).

The advancement process

Stage 1

Unlike traditional sports where the highest scoring athlete or team progresses, our athletes all have an equal chance to progress to the next level of competition. The diagrams on the left in the following steps show how we determine who is eligible for selection to the next level of competition. This process is determined by Sports Rules Article 1 (Section 13).

Stage 2

Athletes must have competed in the previous highest level of the competition (e.g. an athlete must compete in program level games before advancing to the World Games). If they didn’t start, didn’t finish, or were disqualified, they are not eligible to advance.

Stage 3

Athletes must be training and competing in the same sport (and usually event) for the previous and next level of the competition.

Stage 4

Preference is given to gold medal winners of all abilities.

Previous Next

Random selection

Once we have determined which athletes are eligible to advance, we apply a random selection advancement process.

In the first instance, priority is given to gold medallists. If we have more gold medallists than quota places available, we randomly select from this group of eligible gold medallists to fill the quota. If, however, we have more quota places available than we have gold medallists, all gold medallists advance. The remaining places are allocated by random selection from the next level of eligible athletes, the silver medallists.

Athletes will continue to be selected through this random selection process, progressing from gold medallists, to silver, to bronze, 4th place and so on until all quota places have been filled or until the list of eligible athletes has been exhausted.

Your turn

Now it’s your turn, let’s see if you can work out which of these athletes should advance.

You need to apply the advancement procedures we have just explored. You can always look back at the advancement process to help you.

You’re trying to determine who will advance to the World Games tennis event. Athletes will be advancing from the previous level of competition which in this case is the National Games. In this scenario, the quota allocated to this Special Olympics Programme is four athletes.

First you should determine who is eligible to advance to the World Games Tennis competition. Then you can identify who will advance. It may help to use a pen and paper to work it out!