Mission:

Special Olympics mission is to provide year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety 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 the sharing of gifts, skills and friendship with their families, other Special Olympics athletes and the community.

Eligibility:

To be eligible to participate in Special Olympics, an athlete must be at least eight years old and identified by an agency or professional as having one of the following conditions: an intellectual disability, cognitive delay as measured by a formal assessment, or a closely related developmental disability (meaning that person has functional limitations in learning and adaptive skills). We also have a young athletes program that 3-7 year olds can participate in. All athletes must have a current athlete participation form on file.  At this time, Special Olympics Cabarrus County serves over 750 qualifying individuals.