1968 Special Olympics World Summer Games

The First International Special Olympics Games (Summer Special Olympics) were held in Soldier Field, Chicago, Illinois on July 20, 1968.

These were the very first Special Olympics world games. They were held In Chicago, ILL. at Soldier Field.

1000 athletes from 26 states, and Canada competed in track and swimming. Swimming included 25 meter races, and track had short distance runnings, ball throws, and standing long jump.

The athlete's oath was introduced at these games by founder Eunice Shriver at the opening ceremony. The oath is," Let me win. But if I can not win, let me be brave in the attempt."

Famous quotes containing the words special, world, summer and/or games:

    History repeats itself, but the special call of an art which has passed away is never reproduced. It is as utterly gone out of the world as the song of a destroyed wild bird.
    Joseph Conrad (1857–1924)

    I was not at all apprehensive about ... disease ... [it] had no terrors for me. The thing I most feared in the world was hunger. That was something of which I had personal knowledge.
    Madeleine [Blair], U.S. prostitute and “madam.” Madeleine, ch. 4 (1919)

    Lancaster bore him such a little town,
    Such a great man. It doesn’t see him often
    Of late years, though he keeps the old homestead
    And sends the children down there with their mother
    To run wild in the summer a little wild.
    Robert Frost (1874–1963)

    Criticism occupies the lowest place in the literary hierarchy: as regards form, almost always; and as regards moral value, incontestably. It comes after rhyming games and acrostics, which at least require a certain inventiveness.
    Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880)