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Special Olympics USA is a sports organization for children and adults with intellectual disabilities in the United States. It is part of the global Special Olympics movement. Special Olympics was founded in 1968 with the main goal of accepting and welcoming individuals as they are. Special Olympics provides year-round training in Olympic based sports and is based in 204 countries. [1]
The Special Olympics USA Games is a national Special Olympics event held every four years in the United States. [2]
The first, quadrennial, USA National Games were held July 1–8, 2006, in Ames, Iowa. [3] The city of Ames and Iowa State University hosted over 3,000 athletes from all 50 states in 13 sports, including aquatics, basketball, bocce, bowling, golf, artistic gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics, powerlifting, soccer, softball, tennis, track and field, and volleyball. [3] Over 8,000 volunteers were needed to make this event run smoothly. Actor Tom Arnold, originally from Iowa, was the Master of Ceremonies for the Opening Ceremonies, and several other celebrities were at the event as well, including NFL quarterback Kurt Warner and actor Brandon Routh, both also Iowans.
Lincoln, Nebraska, hosted the Games, July 18–23. [2]
The 2014 Special Olympics USA Games were held from June 14–21 in New Jersey. [4] The Opening Ceremony was held at Prudential Center in Newark. [5] [6] Competition was held at venues throughout Mercer County including The College of New Jersey in the Trenton suburb of Ewing, [7] Rider University, Princeton University and Mercer County Park. The budget for the event exceeded $15M. The Games Founding Partners included 21st Century Fox, [8] Barnabas Health, [9] HESS, [10] KPMG, [11] NJSEA, [12] Prudential, [13] PSE&G, [14] ShopRite, [15] Toys"R"Us [16] and WWE. [17]
Baseball was introduced as a sport at the USA Games for the first time, with four teams – from Alabama, Delaware, New Jersey, and Rhode Island. [18] The gold– and bronze–medal games were played in Arm & Hammer Park in Trenton. [18] [19] [20]
The 2018 Special Olympics USA Games were held in Seattle, Washington, from July 1–6, 2018. The USA Games featured more than 4,000 athletes competing in 14 different sports. The Opening Ceremony took place on July 1 at Husky Stadium and included a 2,000-person choir and musical performances from Allen Stone, Ann Wilson and Charlie Puth. The sporting events were held primarily on the University of Washington campus and in various venues around the region. [22]
The 2022 Special Olympics USA Games were held in Orlando, Florida, from June 5-11, 2022. The USA Games featured 5,500 athletes and coaches from all 50 states and The Caribbean. The opening ceremony was held on June 5 at Exploria Stadium and was produced by Disney Live Entertainment featuring performances from Sara Bareilles and others. [23]
The 2026 Special Olympics USA Games will be held in the Minneapolis-St. Paul Area. Most events will be held at the University of Minnesota campus. [24]
The World Games are an international multi-sport event comprising sports and sporting disciplines that are not contested in the Olympic Games. They are usually held every four years, one year after a Summer Olympic Games, over the course of 11 days. The World Games are governed by the International World Games Association, under the patronage of the International Olympic Committee.
Trenton is the capital city of the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Mercer County. It was the capital of the United States from November 1 until December 24, 1784. Trenton and Princeton are the two principal cities of the Trenton–Princeton metropolitan statistical area, which encompasses those cities and all of Mercer County for statistical purposes and constitutes part of the New York combined statistical area by the U.S. Census Bureau. However, Trenton directly borders the Philadelphia metropolitan area to its west, and the city was part of the Philadelphia combined statistical area from 1990 until 2000.
The Pan American Games is a continental multi-sport event in the Americas featuring summer sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The competition is held among athletes from nations of the Americas, every four years in the year before the Summer Olympic Games. It's the oldest continental games in the world. The only Winter Pan American Games were held in 1990. In 2021, the Junior Pan American Games was held for the first time specifically for young athletes. The Pan American Sports Organization (PASO) is the governing body of the Pan American Games movement, whose structure and actions are defined by the Olympic Charter. 2023 Pan American Games starts from 20th October to 5th November.
The Meadowlands Sports Complex is a sports complex located in East Rutherford, in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. The facility is owned and operated by the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority (NJSEA).
Meadowlands Arena is an indoor sports and concert venue located in the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey, United States. Since closing, the state-owned facility has been used as a rehearsal stage by major concert-touring music stars and by NBC Universal for television filming. The arena is located on New Jersey Route 120 across the highway from MetLife Stadium and the Meadowlands Racetrack, next to the American Dream shopping and entertainment complex.
The New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority (NJSEA) is an independent authority established by the State of New Jersey in 1971 to oversee the Meadowlands Sports Complex, but which now contains the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission, a regulatory, planning, and zoning agency, in addition to its original duties. Originally consisting of Giants Stadium and the Meadowlands Racetrack in 1976, Meadowlands Arena was added to the complex in 1981 and New Meadowlands Stadium replaced Giants Stadium in 2010.
Trenton Thunder Ballpark, formerly known as Mercer County Waterfront Park and Arm & Hammer Park, is a ballpark in Trenton, New Jersey. It is the home park for the Trenton Thunder, a collegiate summer baseball team of the MLB Draft League. They were previously a Double-A level Minor League Baseball team of the Eastern League (1994–2020). For 2021, it served as temporary home of Triple-A East's Buffalo Bisons, as their regular stadium, Sahlen Field, was being used by the Toronto Blue Jays due to travel restrictions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. The official seating capacity is 6,440.
The Special Olympics World Games also known as Special Olympiad are an international sporting event for participants with intellectual disabilities, organized by the IOC-recognised Special Olympics organization.
A demonstration sport, or exhibition sport, is a sport which is played to promote it, rather than as part of standard medal competition. This occurs commonly during the Olympic Games, but may also occur at other sporting events.
The Maccabiah Games, first held in 1932, are an international Jewish and Israeli multi-sport event held quadrennially in Israel. The Maccabiah Games are open to Jewish athletes from around the world, and to all Israeli citizens regardless of their religion. It is the third-largest sporting event in the world by number of competitors, with 10,000 athletes competing. The Maccabiah Games were declared a "Regional Sports Event" by, and under the auspices and supervision of, the International Olympic Committee in 1961.
Prudential Center is a multipurpose indoor arena in the central business district of Newark, New Jersey. Opened in 2007, it is the home of the New Jersey Devils of the National Hockey League (NHL) and the men's basketball program of Seton Hall University, known as the Seton Hall Pirates. The arena officially seats 16,514 patrons for hockey games and up to 18,711 for basketball. Fans and sports writers have affectionately nicknamed the arena "The Rock" in reference to the Rock of Gibraltar, the corporate logo of Prudential Financial, a financial institution that owns the naming rights to the arena and is headquartered within walking distance of it. In December 2013, the arena ranked third nationally and ninth internationally for self-reported annual revenue. In January 2023, the arena was ranked fifth globally by Pollstar for concert revenue.
The 2007 Pan American Games, officially known as the XV Pan American Games, were a major continental multi-sport event that took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from July 13 to 29, 2007. A total of 5,633 athletes from 42 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) competed in 332 events in 34 sports and in 47 disciplines. During the Games, 95 new Pan American records were set; 2,196 medals were awarded; 1,262 doping control tests were performed and about 15,000 volunteers participated in the organization of the event, which was an Olympic qualification for 13 International Federations (IFs).
The 2024 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad and commonly known as Paris 2024, is a forthcoming international multi-sport event that is scheduled to take place from 26 July to 11 August 2024 with Paris as its main host city and 16 cities spread across metropolitan France and one in Tahiti—an island within the French overseas country and overseas collectivity of French Polynesia—as a subsite.
Albert Cooper Jr. was a former U.S. soccer goalkeeper who later served in the New Jersey General Assembly. Cooper earned two cap with the U.S. national team in 1928. The first came at the 1928 Summer Olympics when the U.S. lost to Argentina 11–2. Following this loss, the U.S. tied Poland, 3-3, on June 10, 1928. At the time of the Olympics, he played for Trenton F.C.
The 2015 Pan American Games, officially the XVII Pan American Games and commonly known as the Toronto 2015 Pan-Am Games, were a major international multi-sport event celebrated in the tradition of the Pan American Games, as governed by Pan American Sports Organization (PASO). The games were held from July 10 to 26, 2015 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada; preliminary rounds in certain events began on July 7, 2015. These were the third Pan American games hosted by Canada, and the first in the province of Ontario. The Games were held at venues in Toronto and seventeen other Golden Horseshoe communities. The Pan American Games and 2015 Parapan American Games were organized by the Toronto Organizing Committee for the 2015 Pan and Parapan American Games (TO2015).
The Olympic Games ceremonies of the Ancient Olympic Games were an integral part of these Games; the modern Olympic games have opening, closing, and medal ceremonies. Some of the elements of the modern ceremonies date back to the Ancient Games from which the Modern Olympics draw their ancestry. An example of this is the prominence of Greece in both the opening and closing ceremonies. During the 2004 Games, the medal winners received a crown of olive branches, which was a direct reference to the Ancient Games, in which the victor's prize was an olive wreath. The various elements of the ceremonies are mandated by the Olympic Charter, and cannot be changed by the host nation. This requirement of seeking the approval of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) includes the artistic portion of opening and closing ceremonies.
The WBSC Premier12 is the international baseball tournament organized by the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC), featuring the 12 highest-ranked national baseball teams in the world. The first tournament was held by Taiwan and Japan in November 2015. The second tournament, 2019 WBSC Premier12, was held in November 2019, and served as a qualifier for two teams for baseball at the 2020 Summer Olympics.
The 2016 American Cup, known as the 2016 AT&T American Cup for sponsorship reasons, was the fortieth edition of the American Cup, part of the World Cup circuit in artistic gymnastics. It was held on March 5, 2016, at the Prudential Center in Newark. Gabrielle Douglas of the United States won the women's competition, and Ryohei Kato of Japan won the men's.
The Warrior Games is a multi-sport event for wounded, injured or ill service personnel and veterans organized by the United States Department of Defense (DoD).
The 2022 Maccabiah Games took place in Israel from July 14–25, 2022, and are also referred to as the 21st Maccabiah Games. The Maccabiah Games are open to Jewish athletes from around the world, and to all Israeli citizens regardless of their religion. Israeli former Olympic judo medalist Arik Zeevi served as Maccabiah Chairman. Approximately 10,000 athletes from 80 countries competed in 42 sports categories.
Team New Jersey captured the Gold Medal in the Special Olympics USA Games Inaugural Baseball Finals. Team Rhode Island earned the Silver Medal, Team Delaware earned Bronze, and Team Alabama finished fourth.