The 2019 Special Olympics World Summer Games (, ) were a

special olympics Special Olympics is the world's largest sports organization for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, providing year-round training and activities to 5 million participants and Unified Sports partners in 172 countries. Special Ol ...

multi-sport event A multi-sport event is an organized sporting event, often held over multiple days, featuring competition in many different sports among organized teams of athletes from (mostly) nation-states. The first major, modern, multi-sport event of intern ...

for athletes with

intellectual disabilities Intellectual disability (ID), also known as general learning disability (in the United Kingdom), and formerly mental retardation (in the United States), Rosa's Law, Pub. L. 111-256124 Stat. 2643(2010).Archive is a generalized neurodevelopmental ...

in the tradition of the

Special Olympics Special Olympics is the world's largest sports organization for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, providing year-round training and activities to 5 million participants and Unified Sports partners in 172 countries. Special Ol ...

movement. It was held in

Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi is the capital city of the United Arab Emirates. The city is the seat of the Abu Dhabi Central Capital District, the capital city of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, and the UAE's List of cities in the United Arab Emirates, second-most popu ...

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...

from March 14–21, 2019.

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

offered international coverage of the games. The 2019 Special Olympics World Summer Games was the first Special Olympics games to take place in the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

, were also the first to be held in winter/autumn in the host city and the largest sports and humanitarian event recorded, featuring 200 National Programs, more than 7,000 athletes and 20,000 registered volunteers. Since 2017 and following its national policy, the United Arab Emirates coined the term "determination" instead of "

disability Disability is the experience of any condition that makes it more difficult for a person to do certain activities or have equitable access within a given society. Disabilities may be Cognitive disability, cognitive, Developmental disability, d ...

", referring to disabled people as "People of Determination".

Host selection

Three finalists were chosen from the countries which had submitted bids to host the games: Australia, Germany (which was chosen latter to host the 2023 Games), and South Africa. However, all three countries had withdrawn their bids by April 2015. In November 2016, it was announced that the Emirate of Abu Dhabi would host the 2019 Summer Games. This was the first time that the Special Olympics were to be held in the Middle East / North Africa Region. Due to the region's extreme climate, the games were held during the local late winter/early spring season for the first time, from March 14–21, 2019.

Ceremonies

Opening ceremony

It was held at Zayed Sports City Stadium which also held the

FIFA Club World Cup The FIFA Club World Cup (FIFA CWC) is an international men's association football competition organised by the ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' (FIFA), the sport's global sports governing body, governing body. The compe ...

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

and

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

and the

2019 AFC Asian Cup The 2019 AFC Asian Cup (or commonly called the Asian Cup 2019) was the 17th edition of the men's AFC Asian Cup, the quadrennial international association football, football championship of Asia organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) ...

.The headliners of the ceremonies included

Avril Lavigne Avril Ramona Lavigne ( ; ; born September 27, 1984) is a Canadian singer and songwriter. She is a key musician in popularizing pop-punk music, as she paved the way for female-driven, punk-influenced pop music in the early 2000s. List of awa ...

, Hussain Al Jassmi,

Assala Nasri Assala Mostafa Hatem Nasri (; born 15 May 1969), commonly known as Assala (), is a Syrian singer. Early life and career Assala was born in Damascus, Syria to a middle class Arab family. Mostafa Nasri, Assala's father, was a revered composer a ...

Tamer Hosny Tamer Hosny Sherif Abbas Farghaly (; born 16 August 1977), known by his stage name Tamer Hosny (), is an Egyptian singer and actor. He first came to public attention when he appeared on mixed tapes with other Egyptian artists. Hosny launched his ...

Paul Oakenfold Paul Mark Oakenfold (; born 30 August 1963), formerly known mononymously as Oakenfold, is an English record producer, remixer and trance DJ. He has provided over 100 remixes for over 100 artists including U2, Moby, Madonna, Britney Spears, Ma ...

Sumi Jo Sumi Jo, OSI (; ; born 22 November 1962) is a South Korean lyric coloratura soprano known for her Grammy Award-winning interpretations of the bel canto repertoire. Life and career Early life and education Jo was born Jo Su-gyeong in Ch ...

Now United Now United (sometimes abbreviated as NU) is a global pop group formed in West Hollywood, California, West Hollywood, Los Angeles County, USA, in 2017 by ''Idols (TV series), Idols'' creator Simon Fuller. Originally debuting with 14 members from ...

, and

Luis Fonsi Luis Alfonso Rodríguez López-Cepero (born April 15, 1978), known by his stage name Luis Fonsi (), is a Puerto Rican singer. He is known for his soulful and dance oriented songs, most notably 2017's "Despacito". Fonsi received his first Latin ...

Closing ceremony

The closing ceremony took place on 21 March 2019 at the Zayed Sports City Stadium where the Special Olympics flag was handed over from Abu Dhabi to

Jämtland County Jämtland County (, ) is a county or '' län'' in Sweden. It consists of the provinces of Jämtland and Härjedalen, along with minor parts of Hälsingland and Ångermanland, plus two small strips of Lapland and Dalarna. It borders the countie ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

as the hosts of the 2021 Special Olympics World Winter Games. The headliners of the ceremonies were

Nicole Scherzinger Nicole Prascovia Elikolani Scherzinger ( ; ; born June 29, 1978) is an American singer, songwriter, dancer, actress, and television personality. She was a member of the girl group and dance ensemble the Pussycat Dolls between 2003 and 2010. With ...

Keala Settle Keala Settle (born November 5, 1975) is an American actress and singer. Settle originated the role of Norma Valverde in '' Hands on a Hardbody'', which ran on Broadway in 2013, and was nominated for the Outer Critics Circle Award, Drama Desk Awar ...

, Hamad Al Ameri, Rashed Al Majed and Waleed Al Shami. Before the ceremonies the music video of the game's theme song "Right Where I'm Supposed To Be" by

Ryan Tedder Ryan Benjamin Tedder (born June 26, 1979) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. He is best known as the co-founder, frontman, and lead vocalist for the pop rock band OneRepublic, while also serving as a prolific cont ...

, Hussain Al Jassmi,

and

was premiered.

Venues

Events were held at nine venues across two emirates:

Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre The ADNEC Centre Abu Dhabi is an exhibition centre in Abu Dhabi. It was opened by Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates on February 18, 2007. It was designed by the international architecture firm, ...

* Abu Dhabi Sailing and Yacht Club * Al Forsan Resort *

Corniche A corniche is a road on the side of a cliff or mountain, with the ground rising up on one side of the roadway and falling away on the other. The English language has adopted the word from the French term ' or "road on a ledge", itself derive ...

* Yas Links Golf Club *

Yas Marina Circuit The Yas Marina Circuit (Arabic: حلبة مرسى ياس) is a 5.281 km (3.281 mi) motorsport circuit situated on Yas Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The circuit was designed by Hermann Tilke. It has hosted the season-ending Formula One ...

* Zayed Sports City

Dubai

* Dubai Police Club Stadium *

Hamdan Sports Complex The Hamdan Sports Complex is a multi-purpose arena, sports arena in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The arena was completed in summer 2010. It hosted the 2010 FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m), in which 153 countries participated. It also host ...

Sports

The following competitions took place:

Medals

Medal table

Nations

Participating nations

Below is a list of all 195 participating delegations. The number of competitors per delegation is indicated in parentheses.

Marketing

Logo and branding

The logo was unveiled on March 25, 2017, during the handover at the closing ceremony of the 2017 Special Olympics World Winter Games in

Graz Graz () is the capital of the Austrian Federal states of Austria, federal state of Styria and the List of cities and towns in Austria, second-largest city in Austria, after Vienna. On 1 January 2025, Graz had a population of 306,068 (343,461 inc ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

. The logo was projected on the

Burj Khalifa The Burj Khalifa (known as the Burj Dubai prior to its inauguration) is a megatall skyscraper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. With a total height of 829.8 m (2,722 ft, or just over half a mile) and a roof height (excluding the antenna, but inc ...

Dubai Dubai (Help:IPA/English, /duːˈbaɪ/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''doo-BYE''; Modern Standard Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic: ; Emirati Arabic, Emirati Arabic: , Romanization of Arabic, romanized: Help:IPA/English, /diˈbej/) is the Lis ...

. The logo was inspired by

palm Palm most commonly refers to: * Palm of the hand, the central region of the front of the hand * Palm plants, of family Arecaceae ** List of Arecaceae genera **Palm oil * Several other plants known as "palm" Palm or Palms may also refer to: Music ...

fronds woven together in an eastern Arabian cultural technique known in

Gulf Arabic Gulf Arabic or Khaleeji ( ' local pronunciation: or ', local pronunciation: ) is a variety of the Arabic language spoken in Eastern Arabia around the coasts of the Persian Gulf in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, southern Iraq, ...

as (), with the Special Olympics symbol in a red circle in the middle.

References

External links

Official website
{{S-end Special Olympics World Summer Games Special Olympics World Summer Games Special Olympics World Summer Games 2019 in Emirati sport Multi-sport events in the United Arab Emirates International sports competitions hosted by the United Arab Emirates Sports competitions in Abu Dhabi Special Olympics World Games

Host selection

Ceremonies

Opening ceremony

Closing ceremony

Venues

Abu Dhabi

Dubai

Sports

Medals

Medal table

Nations

Participating nations

Marketing

Logo and branding

Sponsors

Presenting partner

Official partners

Official sponsors

Official suppliers

Official supporters

Host, broadcast, media, government and venue partners and supporters

References

External links