Special Olympics China
Special Olympics China was established on June 17th, 1985 and joined Special Olympics International on July 6th. In 1998, Special Olympics China started to be managed by the China Disabled Person’s Federation (CDPF).

Special Olympics China has been organizing a variety of sports events to promote the development of Special Olympics in China. The scale of National Special Olympics Games has been gradually enlarging. Different types of regular or ad hoc training and competitions, as well as other Special Olympics activities, have been held by Special Olympics organizations in all provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government and cities and counties.

Since 1987, China has sent delegations to bi-annual summer and winter Special Olympics World Games and achieved fairly good performances in all of them.

In 2002, Shanghai won the bid to host the 2007 Special Olympics Summer World Games and made China the first country in Asia to host these Games.

There are approximately upwards of 13 million people with intellectual disabilities in China. With up to over half a million Special Olympics athletes and events all over the country, China has become the country with the fastest development of Special Olympics in the whole world.
Special Olympics International has highly evaluated the tremendous accomplishments by China in Special Olympics over the past twenty years.

Special Olympics Shanghai
Special Olympics Shanghai was established in April 1986 and currently has over 40 thousand Special Olympics athletes.

In addition to frequent organization of Special Olympics training and competitions in the city, Special Olympics Shanghai has also hosted activities like Special Olympics competitions and training in the Asia-Pacific region, Special Olympics Leadership classes and Parents Workshops. In November 1996, Shanghai hosted the first Special Olympics Games in the Asia-Pacific region.

The 6th Shanghai Special Olympics Games was held from September 17th through October 4th in 2005, with 15 competitive events and 4 demonstration sports, and 4 non-sport programs – Host Town Program, Healthy Athletes Program, Parent Forum and Youth Summit. There were 4188 athletes (including those from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan) participating in the Games and nearly 4800 volunteers.


2007 Special Olympics World Summer Games
Special Olympics International held news conferences in both Shanghai and Washington D.C. on May 24th, 2002 to announce that Shanghai China won the bid to host the 2007 Special Olympics World Summer Games. This is the first time for Special Olympics World Summer Games to be held in Asia and in a developing country.

Over ten thousand Special Olympics athletes and coaches, over twenty thousand family members of athletes, experts, scholars and distinguished guests, as well as forty thousand volunteers from more than 170 countries and regions will attend this grand event.

There will be altogether 21 competitive events, include bowling, outdoor bowls, sailboat, golf, weightlifting, basketball, equitation, volleyball, table tennis, handball, aquatic sports, gymnastics, track and field, tennis, badminton, cycling, canoeing, judo, ice skating, soccer and baseball.

demonstration sports include dragon & lion dance, dragon boat race, cricket and Motor Activities Training Program (MATP).

Non-sports programs include the Law Enforcement Torch Run, Host Town Program, Healthy Athletes Program, Parent Forum, Youth Summit and School Enrichment Program etc.