I have been a lucky, lucky man—maybe the luckiest man in America. President Kennedy speaking about the Peace Corps in its earliest days once said, “I gave Sarge a lemon and he made lemonade”. But it was the Peace Corps Volunteer serving overseas who made the Peace Corps a success, not me or anyone else in Washington. But the greatest, perhaps of all the initiatives I have been lucky to work with is Special Olympics. Special Olympics is now one of the largest sports programs in the world. Special Olympics is only 28 years old, yet it already enlists 1,100,000 athletes in 143 countries. Communists and Capitalists, white people, yellow people, black people, people of all religions, races, all continents participate in Special Olympics. There have never been victories like the ones I shall tell you about today: they are victories for all of humanity, and victories where no one loses.
In 1990, at a press conference in Washington, these words were spoken by the minister-counselor of the Soviet Embassy: “Special Olympics will assist all of us, East and West, to “synchronize our moral compasses”. Alexander Potemkin was no only correct when he made that statement, but he was also prophetic. Although the USSR exists no longer, all of the countries once under that regime now have National Special Olympics programs of their own. Private, free enterprise, charitable foundations are in charge of our activities in every new country of the former USSR. Communism failed where Special Olympics now flourishes. Special Olympics is not nationalistic. We play no national anthems. We wave no flags. We permit no computation of medals won by specific countries. It is individual effort and achievements that count.
It was in the Special Olympics World Games last year that 180 athletes from South Africa, blacks and whites, first competed together on one team. It was in Special Olympics Games, 12 years ago, that northern and southern Irish athletes competed together on one team.
It was in Special Olympics that athletes from the new State of Palestine first competed in a world event. It is in Special Olympics that all the Muslim countries of North Africa, save one, and all the Muslim countries of the Arabian Peninsula, and of the Far East are united with Israel and Christian countries. They compete with athletes from the People’s Republic of China and from Fidel Castro’s Cuba.
All the athletes from Poland, the Czech Republic, and from the former USSR were flown to our World Games in 1991, free-of-charge, on planes supplied personally by Lech Walesa, Vaclav Havel, and Mikhail Gorbachev. And it was in Special Olympics that athletes from the new State of Palestine first competed in a world event. And in May of this year, athletes from Special Olympics Jordan travelled to Israel to participate in Special Olympics Games there.
Special Olympics is open to all competitors, eight years old and older. We have medal winners who are eight, nine, ten and eighty years of age. We have winners who are able to compete only at the lowest level of physical ability in that we describe as our Motor Activities Training Program. But in every Special Olympics, the athlete has a chance to win.
They compete in divisions only with athletes of the same, or approximately the same ability. Special Olympics is also free of performance-enhancing drugs. Instead we are interested in enhancing the ability of every participant increasing their self-esteem and self-confidence, and improving them physically, psychologically and spiritually.
In 1989 Special Olympics launched a new program, Unified Sports. Unified Sports unites Special Olympics athletes with persons of normal intelligence, all on the same team, for training and competition. The benefits for all participants, not just the Special Olympics’ athletes, have been almost unbelievable. These partnerships are helping to bring mentally-handicapped athletes into the normal life of their communities. They are also teaching all of us with normal intelligence that we can be and should be truly “one people, under God, with liberty and justice for all.” We do not believe that sports are an end in themselves. We do not permit sports to dominate us or our athletes.
In the Special Olympics, we use sports to help people develop in all areas of life. Special Olympics thus involved the parents and siblings of our athletes. They provide transportation. They sit on Boards of Directors. They raise money. Over 10,000 parents and siblings attended our last International Summer Games. They were housed, fed and transported, free-of-charge, by volunteer hosts and families. They sat in specially reserved seats. Our latest estimate reveals that approximately 1,000,000 persons volunteer, annually, in the Special Olympics Movement worldwide. Less than 500 paid employees manage 1,100,000 Special Olympics athletes and games in 143 countries. Sixty-two thousand volunteers worked to help manage and stage the 1995 World Games. Without this army of volunteers these Games could not have been produced for $34,000,000.
Just 36 months ago, the State of Connecticut submitted a winning bid to host the World Wide Special Olympics Summer Games. The Governor of Connecticut, Lowell Weicker, was enthusiastic. Several large corporations volunteered to help finance the costs. Yale University volunteered to join as hosts for these Special Olympics Games. The State of Connecticut then guaranteed the bid financially. The Yale Medical School, the Law School, and the Divinity School all created, managed and staged an unprecedented United Nations Symposium on mental retardation worldwide. President Clinton and his wife, Hillary, came to our Opening Ceremonies. Seven thousand two hundred athletes and thirty-five hundred coaches from 143 countries paraded into the Yale Bowl. Connecticut Labor Unions and their members gave $714,000 worth of their time and talent-free. Those Games were the biggest athletic event in the world in 1995.
No one was getting richer, financially, in these or in any other Special Olympics activities. In Connecticut alone, 62,000 people volunteered their time. Two days before the Games began, the Secretary of State, Warren Christopher, and Deputy Strobe Talbot, hosted a banquet at the State Department in Washington for 250 foreign dignitaries, scientists, politicians, medical doctors, and lawyers who were all dedicated to the ideals of Special Olympics. The United States Mint produced new, silver, $1 commemorative coins, 800,000 of them, in honor of the Games.
The wonders of the Special Olympics are not restricted to activities by parents and siblings, or by leaders of government, or by the absence of drugs, or the help given by volunteers or academic institutions, and the International Olympic Committee leaders. Help often comes from unexpected places. All of you have ridden in Otis Elevators. But did you ever think that an elevator company would sponsor an athletic program? I never did. But thousands of Otis Elevator Company’s employees have given countless hours volunteering for Special Olympics. In every country where Otis operates, 45 in all, there is a Team Otis working with Special Olympics athletes every day.
Next, the Fleet Bank, the eighth largest banking system in our country, decided to support Special Olympics. They resolved that their commitment would go far beyond writing checks. They wanted to find innovative ways to partner their employees and their customers, in a team effort, to contribute to the success of Special Olympics. They have done this so successfully, sending out a mailing to top-tier, banking clients requesting letters of support and encouragement to Special Olympics athletes. Then, 1,000 Fleet employees took time off to volunteer at the Games. Russ Meyer, Chairman and CRO of the Cessna Aircraft Company, has for the past 16 years arranged a massive airlift for Special Olympics athletes and coaches. Owners of Cessna aircraft from all over the country donate their planes, pilots, time and fuel to get athletes and coaches to the Games. This is so extraordinary well-organized that the Cessna Airlift has become the largest peacetime airlift in the world.
In 1988, Special Olympics was the first sports organization authorized by the International Olympic Committee to use the word “Olympics” in our title. Forgive me one comparison: The regular Olympic Games in Atlanta this year will cost approximately $1,600,000,000. Some 10,000 athletes will compete. The Olympics will cost about 45 times more than the Special Olympics. They will cost approximately $160,000 per participant; Special Olympics costs about $4,500 per participant.
Every Special Olympics athlete went home a winner. Of the 10,000 regular Olympic athletes, 9,000 or more will go home defeated, without any medal or ribbon to show for their efforts. Numerous Olympic athletes recognize the courage, skill and spirit of Special Olympic athletes. Among the medal winners who volunteer for Special Olympics are: Rafer Johnson, Bart Connor, Nadia Comaneci, Sheila Young Ochowicz, Billy Kidd, Dorthy Hamill, Scott Hamilton, Donna de Varona, and Dan Jansen.
The athletic achievements of Special Olympics athletes are just as impressive. This past July at Yale, the first, full-length Olympic Marathon, run by persons with mental retardation came up to its finish line in the Yale Bowl, and 50,000 spectators were applauding. The gold medalist, Troy Rutter of Pennsylvania, finished in two hours 59 minutes and 18.7 seconds- faster than the best runners in the world in the Olympics of 1900 and 1904. How many of us can run the 100 meter race faster than 11 seconds flat? How many of us in our prime could run the mile faster than four minutes five seconds? Special Olympics’ athletes can.
For the first time in Special Olympics history, World Games competition was covered live on the ESPN Sports television network. ESPN also broadcast competition highlights on “Sports Center” widely regarded as the top sports highlighters and information program on television. ABC’s hugely popular “Wide World of Sports” has devoted several hours of programming on Special Olympics throughout the years. A story on Special Olympics marathoner Art Pease of Oregon was featured during World Games Week in Sports Illustrated, one of the premier sports publications. Sports Illustrated, in fact, has profiled a number of Special Olympics athletes. USA Today’s sports section covered the 1995 Games extensively.
But you don’t have to wait for World Games to enjoy Special Olympics. In our own State of Virginia there are 10,157 athletes; 411 Unified Partners; 1,427 coaches and 20,000 volunteers. Eighteen sports are offered to Special Olympics athletes and training and competition go on year-round.
Volunteers are needed in all areas- fundraising, outreach, public relations, athlete recruitment, sports coordinators, Games/competition directors, coaches, etc. You Area Councils meet once a month. I have brought material with me to give you the information you need to contact your Area Director(s), along with a list of upcoming Special Olympics Virginia events in this area.
We now have 1,100,000 athletes enrolled in the Special Olympics. By the year 2003, we expect to have 2,000,000. By 2012, we expect to have 3,000,000. By 2020 we expect to have 4,000,000. By then, Special Olympics will be the largest sports program in world history, and the largest activity in history for the lowest, weakest, and least respected members of our human family. We Americans may well be the creators of, the motivators of, the financiers of, and the leaders of the greatest “revolution from below” in human history. What a Declaration of Interdependence we will have given to the world. I invite the Alexandria Rotary Club, and each one of your present, individually to join that “revolution”.
