"Special Olympics focuses on athletes with intellectual disabilities, emphasizing that they want the same opportunities as everyone else (friends, jobs, independence) without social barriers. The organization helps remove obstacles to let athletes thrive. SOPA is all about the athletes and their remarkable resilience under challenging conditions. One remarkable fact about the athletes with intellectual disabilities is that they want to seek normalcy, inclusion, and the same opportunities as anyone else. They are not looking for "special" treatment or lowered expectations from people."
""I think the most powerful thing I've learned is that Special Olympics athletes don't want to be special. They're just like everybody else. They want friends, social experiences, jobs, independence, to compete, to drive, and everything that anybody else wants," Matt Aaron, President and CEO of Special Olympics Pennsylvania, said in an interview with SnowBrains. Aaron has been with SOPA since 2008 and has been the CEO and President for 17 years."
Two hundred fifty athletes from across Pennsylvania competed at the Special Olympics Pennsylvania (SOPA) winter games at Seven Springs Mountain Resort, participating in alpine skiing, snowboarding, and snowshoeing across multiple race courses. SOPA is an annual event that relies on hundreds of volunteers, fundraisers, and partnerships to operate each February. The organization focuses on removing social barriers so athletes with intellectual disabilities can pursue friendships, jobs, independence, competition, and normalcy without lowered expectations. SOPA emphasizes athlete resilience under challenging conditions and seeks to provide equal opportunities rather than special treatment.
Read at SnowBrains
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]