Q: Special Olympics athletes cover such a wide range of intellectual disabilities. Don't those with the mildest intellectual disabilities always win?

A: Actually, Special Olympics employs a Divisioning process in our competitions. The fundamental difference that sets Special Olympics competitions apart from those of other sports organizations is that athletes of all ability levels are encouraged to participate, and every athlete is recognized for his or her performance. Competitions are structured so that athletes compete with other athletes of similar ability in each division.

Preliminary rounds of competition help to determine the appropriate division for each athlete. Athletes with similar scores from these preliminary rounds will be grouped in similar divisions for competitions. Other factors that are significant in establishing competitive divisions are age and gender.

Ideally, games are more competitive when each division has at least three and no more than eight competitors or teams of similar ability. However, sometimes there are not enough teams or athletes with similar abilities to achieve this goal.

For a single event, there can be more than 10 divisions, with a gold, silver and bronze medal winner in each division. This divisioning process helps Special Olympics to ensure that of our athletes can participate and excel. In addition, athletes that do not place in the top 3 in their division are still awarded ribbons recognizing the place earned in the competition.

For more detailed information on individual and team sports divisioning:

Individual Sports divisioning

Team Sports divisioning