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Background: Shot-put is one of the events in which athletes with intellectual impairment compete at the Paralympic Games, since their re-inclusion in 2012. The purpose of this study was to compare the competition performance and investigate differences in release parameters and consistency of performance between high level shot-put throwers with and without intellectual impairment. Methods: Data collection took place at the 2014 European Championships athletics for athletes with intellectual impairment (n = 20; 11 men, 9 women, MIQ = 60.2 ± 7.3, Mage = 28.1 ± 6.7 years), and the 2015 national championships for athletes without intellectual impairment (n = 26, 12 men, 14 women, Mage = 24.9 ± 5.6 years). A video camera operating at 100 Hz was utilized to capture the throws and 2D images were analyzed with motion analysis software to calculate release parameters and check consistency of the throw. Results: Independent t tests revealed that the average (11.87 m) and best (14.81 m) performance of male world-class intellectual impairment-throwers was significantly lower compared to the average (14.62 m) and best (17.78 m) performance of male national level throwers without intellectual impairment (F = 5.3, p < .05), primarily due to the significantly lower release velocity (r = .79, p < .01). The inter-individual variance in throw-to-throw distance was significantly larger in intellectual impairment-throwers; however, opposite to what was expected, the angle of release consistency was not significantly different between both samples. Intellectual impairment-throwers performed with superior release velocity consistency than non-intellectual impairment-throwers. Conclusions: These findings support the assumption that impaired cognitive function may constrain the ability to optimally release the shot-put. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the Healthy Athletes program by the Special Olympics, an sports organization serving athletes with intellectual disabilities, including its impact on health care professional education with respect to athletes with intellectual disabilities. Topics discussed include Special Olympics sports and nonsports programs, athletes with intellectual disabilities, and intellectual disabilities.

The mission of the Special Olympics is to provide year-round sports training and competition in a variety (33) of Olympic-type sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, giving them continuing opportunities to develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage, experience joy, and participate in sharing of gifts and friendship with their families, other athletes, and their communities. The Special Olympics movement often goes beyond the sports competition formula. During the last few years, the movement has developed many new global initiatives, which expand its former sports activities. They include: 1. Coaching excellence and the coaching model 2. Partnerships with international (regional) sports federations 3. Sports Resources Teams (SRT) 4. Extended quota for high level athletes 5. Athletes Leadership Program (ALPS) 6. Young Athletes Program 7. Youth volunteer initiatives 8. Unified Sports Program 9. Motor Activity Training Program 10. Healthy Athletes Program These initiatives fulfill and expand the existing program, which was launched in 1968 and is the largest sports organization for people with disabilities worldwide, with very important new social, marketing, and developmental aspects of life, going far beyond activities met in other sports organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to reveal the differences in game performance between winning and losing European teams, with special emphasis on a comparative analysis of shooting situations. The sample of games comprised 1111 scenes (losing team scenes: 559, winning team scenes: 552) played between the European women's national team and the data were processed using Fisher's exact test and the Mann-Whitney U test. The main results were as follows: 1) Total attack eciency and shot eciency were signicantly lower for the losing teams, but there was no difference in the occurrence rate of technical faults. 2) The occurrence rate of fast breaks and shot eciency in organized attacks were significantly lower for losing teams compared to winning teams. 3) The occurrence rate and eciency of 6-m shots were significantly lower for losing teams compared to winning teams. 4) The eciency for in-contact shots was significantly lower for losing teams compared to winning teams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstracts are presented of articles on the subject of social science and geopolitics, including "Frontières, passeurs et intégration: Quand les personnes handicappées mentales pratiquent un sport en milieu ordinaire," by Flavien Bouttet; "Entre Strasbourg et Kehl: Les vicissitudes d'un espace frontière 1918-1945," by Karen Denni; and "Effets de frontière en périphérie du travail," by Laurent Erbs.

Abstracts are presented of articles on the subject of social science and geopolitics, including "Frontières, passeurs et intégration: Quand les personnes handicappées mentales pratiquent un sport en milieu ordinaire," by Flavien Bouttet; "Entre Strasbourg et Kehl: Les vicissitudes d'un espace frontière 1918-1945," by Karen Denni; and "Effets de frontière en périphérie du travail," by Laurent Erbs.

Abstracts are presented of articles on the subject of social science and geopolitics, including "Frontières, passeurs et intégration: Quand les personnes handicappées mentales pratiquent un sport en milieu ordinaire," by Flavien Bouttet; "Entre Strasbourg et Kehl: Les vicissitudes d'un espace frontière 1918-1945," by Karen Denni; and "Effets de frontière en périphérie du travail," by Laurent Erbs.

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In July 2009, the Special Olympics Great Britain National Summer Games for athletes with learning disabilities were held in Leicester. Uniquely the Games achieved considerable television news coverage. This article offers a preliminary analysis of television representations of the Games. National TV coverage of the Paralympics is now established, but Special Olympics – and sport for people with learning disabilities in general – receives little media or research attention. This is partly because Special Olympics remains located outside mainstream national sporting networks and its ethos stresses the importance of participation over sporting excellence. The 2009 Games’ television coverage projected complex and ‘mixed’ messages reflected in the language, tone and images typically employed by broadcasters. We identify three key themes: first, the problematically relentless ‘positive’ tone of the coverage, which echoes wider public discourses concerning learning disability; second, the media emphasis on ‘human interest’ narratives and so, via these, the invidualizing of learning disability questions and the general absence of any wider discussion of political or social agendas linking sport and disability; finally, how television in its occasional focus on the families of athletes with learning disabilities articulated values and tensions which characterize the unusually conflicted status of the Games. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article analyzes the paper "The More Things Change, the More They are the Same: Continuing Concerns with the Special Olympics," by K. Storey. The research is criticized for the lack of attention and balance on the programatic changes regarding Special Olympics. Also countered is the assertion of Storey that the coach is the person without a disability, making the athletes in a subordinate role of being less able, more dependent, and unequal, since the coaches can be former Special Olympics athletes. In terms of the event's funding, Storey is said to have failed mentioning the finance from the Special Olympics and instead cited only the U.S. sources.

The article discusses the 5-3-1 basketball and football toss activities to men at dementia-specific program. It mentions that the activities aim to increase socialization, physical strength, visual or spatial skills, focus, and mood of participants. It states that men were supportive with each other though it is a competitive game while non-playing sports enjoyed watching. Furthermore, it says that the latter must be encouraged to cheer and to try during practice.

Special Olympics provides sporting opportunities for people with intellectual disabilities (ID), and Lions Clubs International Opening Eyes GB offers vision screening for athletes at Special Olympics Games.Opening Eyes GB screened the vision of 505 UK athletes at its inaugural event in 2001. The results were analysed and are presented here.Results showed that athletes do not differ from other people with ID in being at high risk of ocular and visual defects and many are not accessing eyecare. 15% reported never having an optometric eye examination, and yet 19% of these athletes had a significant refractive error, 32% had ocular anomalies and 6% were visually impaired. Overall, findings confirmed the high prevalence of refractive errors and strabismus amongst people with ID. 40% of athletes had ocular abnormalities, including 15.6% with blepharitis, a readily treatable condition that causes discomfort. 9% had lens opacities, of which half were probably impairing sight. An important finding was that many athletes have reduced vision and 14% could be classified as visually impaired (WHO definition) even when refractive errors were fully corrected.Special Olympics athletes should be encouraged to have regular eye examinations (as indeed, should all people with ID), and educators, carers and coaches need appropriate information about the visual status of their charges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the challenge of developing an intellectual disability classification within the Sport for People with Disabilities movement. Official perspectives that identify the areas of an intellectual disabilities profile; Information on the Blomquist approach, a classification system developed by Brigitta Blomquist through the writings of Doc Councilman, a swimming teacher from the U.S.; Proposed approaches as bases for an intellectual disabilities classification.

Presents information on the 1995 Special Olympics World Games which were held in New Haven, Connecticut. Details on the opening ceremony of the games; Information on the Games Organizing Committee three primary goals; Community support for the Special Olympics; Summary on the various sports which were played; Amount of countries with participating in the games. INSETS: Did you know?.;Special Olympics improves social development according to New..;New challenge..

The article presents a comparison of the competitive athletics among mildly mentally retarded and nonretarded adults. It was discovered that the games of the retarded adults differ from nonretarded adults in terms of physical setting, rules, officiating and coaching. Moreover, retarded athletes played under higher level of anxiety and lack of team effectiveness. Researchers conclude that the provision of a normal setting to retarded athletes during the competition has added to their anxiety.

Presents an abstract of the study `The Effectiveness of a Constant Time Delay Procedure on Teaching Lifetime Sport Skills to Adolescents With Severe to Profound Intellectual Disabilities,' by J. Zang, D. Gast et al., which was published in the volume 30 issue of `Education and Training in Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities'.

Focuses on the psychological outcomes of the participation of mentally-retarded individuals in sports through the Special Olympics. Improvement of self-concept; Enhancing physical fitness.

The article presents a summary of the article "Applied sport psychology and persons with mental retardation," by C.A. Travis and M.L. Sachs, published in the journal "The Sport Psychologist." The article looks at the application of sports psychology principles to the participation of people with mental disabilities in the Special Olympics.

A summary is presented of the article "Orelove, Wehman, and Wood revisited: An evaluative review of Special Olympics ten years later," by M. E. Block and E. S. Moon, in "Education and Training in Mental Retardation." The article finds that the Special Olympics has improved since 1984, but still tends to marginalize its mentally disabled participants.

This article examines the relationship between the Special Olympics and community integration among individuals with mental disabilities. The history of the Special Olympics and its goals are discussed, as well as its effects on the community of mentally disabled individuals and their families. Researchers interviewed parents of participants in the Special Olympics, as well as the participants themselves, in an effort to determine the positive effects of the Special Olympics on the socialization of these individuals.

The article analyzes the paper "The More Things Change, the More They are the Same: Continuing Concerns With the Special Olympics," by K. Storey. It indicates that the research highlighted the failure of the Special Olympics to achieve the goal of social integration and sustained social interaction among people with intellectual disabilities and their peers without a disability level. Also stressed in the paper is the primary cause of the segregation of events such as the Special Olympics Games, which is participated by people with disabilities only. There is a cited support for the paper's assertion that efforts must focus on developing and expanding integrated recreational services.

The article focuses on a promotional project by the West German government to increase awareness and funding for sports for disabled persons. Recipients of federal funds include the German Disabled Sports Association, the German Deaf Sports Association, and the German Blind Chess Club. A statement from the government on using sports to improve the quality of life for the disabled is presented.

Presents an abstract of the article entitled `The competitive disposition: Views of athletes with mental retardation,' by D.A. Zoerink and J. Wilson and published by the `Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly.'

This article presents a discussion of an article titled "Are Special Olympians Meeting Their Athletic Potential" by P.A. Roper, and C. Silver from "Palaestra." The authors surveyed 121 athletes who competed in the Connecticut Special Olympics Summer Games and finished in first or second place in various track events.

This article summarizes the research paper "Training personnel and procedures for Special Olympics athletes," by S. E. Miller, in "Education and Training in Mental Retardation." The study investigates specific characteristics and developed a data base regarding Special Olympic coaches.

The article analyzes the commentary of William E. MacLean Jr. about a paper titled "The More Things Change, the More They are the Same: Continuing Concerns With the Special Olympics." It notes that MacLean's cited health initiatives that the Special Olympics have formed are not directly related to the mission of the event. The author argued that his paper centered on issues related to the Special Olympics and not on all studies about the topic. The author stresses the need to implement and fund integrated recreational services because the Special Olympics remains a segregated program and is unable to deliver desired quality-of-life outcomes.

Reports that actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, led statesmen, Special Olympics International (SOI) leaders and athletes to South Africa for the Special Olympics African Hope 2001 event. Goal of the SOI; Highlights of the events.

Presents information on the 2000 Special Olympics European Games for mentally handicapped to be held in Groningen, Netherlands, sponsored by Special Olympics Inc. Estimated number of participants; Purpose of the games; Sports included in the Olympics.

Provides information on the United States Cerebral Palsy Athletic Association (USCPAA). Amount that USCPAA strives to raise a year; Events that USCPAA offers for both bicycles and trikes; Options for swimmers with cerebral palsy.

Focuses on the 1999 Special Olympics World Summer Games to be held in North Carolina. Features of the official Games poster unveiled by artist Fabienne Delacroix; Details on the `99 World Games Fashion Show preview; Host for the 2003 Games.

Reports on the 1999 Special Olympics in North Carolina. Estimated number of volunteers needed; Launch of a statewide School Enrichment Program to educate students about mental retardation; Convening of the first Special Olympics Peace Games in Bethlehem, West Bank.

Reports on a study by the American Academy of Pediatrics who reviewed data on a previous position statement supporting the requirement introduced by the Special Olympics Committee in 1983 that lateral neck radiographs be obtained in persons with Down syndrome to screen for atlantoaxial instability before they participate in the athletic program. Questionable value of cervical spine radiographs in assessing risks.