Louisiana Athletes Depart For Special Olympics

The Special Olympics USA Games run from June 30th-July 6th in Seattle, Washington and today 70 athletes from across the state are preparing for the trip. In addition to the athletes, 28 unified partners and 31 coaches and official delegates are going along. In addition to individual event competitors, the athletes comprise 10 sports teams.

All told nearly 3,000 athletes, one thousand coaches and 10,000 volunteers and delegates will be in attendance from across the country. Crowds of upwards of 70,000 spectators will be on hand to cheer on the games.

Special Olympics helps change lives of people with intellectual and physical disabilities - Louisiana Special Olympics says the organization promotes understanding, acceptance, and inclusion and the Louisiana program alone offers year-round programs for some 15,106 children and adults throughout all 64 parishes.

Youngsters as little as  2 years old can participate and there's no upper age limit and thanks to contributions there is no cost to participate in Special Olympics.

For more information about the games, the Louisiana program or to donate please visit the website for Louisiana Special Olympics here. You can also make a phone call at 800-345-6644 to learn more about the programs available here at home.