What is the Special Olympics Challenge?

The Special Olympics Challenge consists of a series of technical, measurable exercises (skills) in different sports. There are skills for athletes to perform individually, as well as skills that can be practised in teams of two to five people. Series are published on specific dates and define a specific training, divisioning and competition (competition) phase.

Why has the Challenge been created??

The Challenge was developed by Special Olympics Switzerland in the summer of 2020. Its development arose out of the coronavirus pandemic, which led to the cancellation of competitions and meant that athletes could no longer practise their sport.

Fairness!

The Special Olympics Challenge is based on fairness! The results achieved and submitted to Special Olympics are not monitored. The divisioning and final must be carried out to the same specifications (sports facility, infrastructure, surface) and under comparable conditions. Personal details and results must be recorded correctly.

Who can participate?

The only prerequisite to taking part in the Challenge is the ability to execute the skills in accordance with the instructions. There are no restrictions in terms of age, gender or disability. The Challenge is aimed at athletes with an intellectual disability. Participation is open to everyone, even if they do not regularly participate in the sport selected for the Challenge. Everyone can participate in any skill!

What is the registration process?

Taking part in the Challenge involves registering online. Participants unable to register themselves must be registered by a responsible person (coach) with a few brief details.

What is divisioning?

Divisioning is at the heart of the Special Olympics sporting philosophy. It means that everyone can take part in fair competition based on their ability level, and places participants into homogeneous ability groups (divisions) with a maximum of eight people.

How is divisioning used for the Challenge?

Bei der Challenge wir das Divisioning aufgrund der eingereichten For the Challenge, divisioning is applied to the submitted results during the divisioning phase. If there are many participants, Special Olympics Switzerland will consider applying basic divisioning according to gender and age. The divisioning will be carried out by experts from Special Olympics Switzerland, and all the participants in each skill will be informed which group (division) they have been assigned to.  Once the divisions have been published, these are binding and cannot be altered or objected to.

Is it possible to participate in more than one skill?

Yes. Registered participants can participate in several skills.

Is it possible to participate in the same skill more than once?

Registered participants can only take part once in the same skill, i.e. only one result per skill can be logged. However, it is possible for the same person to be logged more than once because they are participating under different coaches (multiple participants).

Is it possible for a participant to have been registered several times?

Ja. Es kann sein, dass ein Teilnehmer/eine Teilnehmerin von Yes. It is possible for a participant to have been registered by more than one coach and for the participant to take part in different skills and teams.

How are teams formed?

There are skills that are practised in teams of two to five people.

Such a team can only be set up by a coach who has registered no fewer than the required number of participants. Every participant must be registered by this same coach. The coach will assign a name to the team (max. XY characters).

A coach can register several teams and allocate their athletes to these teams.

An athlete can participate in several teams and be allocated to them accordingly. Once a team has been registered, it cannot be amended, and must tackle a skill as a team. If, over the course of a series, a team is unable to continue playing together, then that team cannot log a result and has to drop out of the series.

Wie werden die Resultate erfasstHow are the results logged?

For the divisioning and contest, only one result can be logged for each participant! We recommend making a note of all the results during the training phase and then entering the best results for the divisioning.

What can athletes win by taking part in the Challenge?

Everyone who participates in the Special Olympics Challenge will receive a personal “start number”. This will be sent by e-mail, either directly to the participant or to the coach who has registered the athlete. Following the contest, every participant will receive a personalised certificate confirming their participation and their ranking in the respective division.

What data are published?

By participating in the Special Olympics Challenge, participants consent to making their first name, surname, year of birth and gender public for every participant to see. This is for organisational reasons.