Competing in sports at your highest potential requires more than just hard work and determination. It also requires a healthy lifestyle away from the practice field, as well as reliable access to healthcare. As the world’s largest sports organization for people with intellectual disabilities, Special Olympics recognizes this need. Through its work, Special Olympics advances inclusion in health care, wellness and health systems.
One key mechanism for improving the health of Special Olympics athletes is the Special Olympics Healthy Athletes® initiative, first started in 1997. Through free health screenings, it keeps athletes up to date on components of living a healthy lifestyle, and provides a welcoming, fun and educational environment.
“Health screenings help identify opportunities and challenges that impact athlete performance in sports competitions. Too often, health issues are mistakenly being directly attributed to the person’s diagnosis of intellectual disability [ID],” Tom Quade, Senior Director of Health for Special Olympics North America, said about the importance of the health initiative. “Diagnostic overshadowing is a process where health professionals wrongly presume that physical or emotional symptoms are a consequence of the patient’s intellectual disability.”
And while a generally held misconception is that people with intellectual disabilities have better or more affordable health care, it’s the opposite. Often, these individuals receive substandard care or virtually no healthcare at all. The impact of health screenings provided by Special Olympics extends far and wide, even detecting undiagnosed health problems and offering an unmatched opportunity to educate and identify areas for growth in collaboration with health professionals.
“Cultural beliefs, stigma, and discrimination can significantly limit access for people with ID,” Quade continued. “Having laws and policies in place to protect their rights to health, education, and necessary services are essential to ensure health equity for people with ID. When people with ID have access to health care, education, employment, sports, and other pathways to reach full participation in society, they are healthier as a consequence.”
Special Olympics has delivered over 2 million free health screenings and trained close to 300,000 health professionals and students to treat people with intellectual disabilities since 1997. Special Olympics offers nine Healthy Athletes disciplines, including MedFest (history and physical exam), Special Olympics Lions Clubs International Foundation Opening Eyes® (vision/eye health), Healthy Hearing (audiology), Special Smiles (dentistry), Health Promotion (prevention and nutrition), Strong Minds (emotional health), FUNfitness (physical therapy), Fit Feet (podiatry) and Healthy Young Athletes.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Healthy Athletes screenings were significantly reduced. In 2020, only 3,703 athletes were screened in the United States, leaving many athletes without this crucial preventive health opportunity. As in-person activities resumed, so did Healthy Athletes screenings. Each year since 2023, the number of screenings has continued to grow, especially in North America.
The bulk of Healthy Athletes screenings take place at major competition events throughout the year and, in the United States, one of the largest vehicles for screenings are the annual Summer Games held in all 52 U.S. Programs.
In 2025, across the United States there were 19,567 total athletes screened during Summer Games. In the Special Smiles discipline, 5,062 athletes were screened across 63 events, 1,961 athletes in the Strong Minds discipline across 27 events and 2,737 athletes in the Healthy Hearing discipline across 50 events nationwide.
“The reality is that many of our athletes are showing up to practices and competitions while in pain or with problems seeing or hearing their teammates because of health issues impacting their vision or hearing. Other chronic health conditions left undiagnosed or untreated can put athletes at increased risk for injury or potential medical emergencies,” Quade said, in hopes that the number of screenings continues to grow.
The effort and initiatives made possible by Special Olympics are creating more reliable healthcare options for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. As athletes attend Healthy Athletes screenings at various events throughout the year, the interactions with healthcare providers are the driving force behind creating and continuing better healthcare.
