Youth unified sports : perceptions of young people of various intellectual abilities and their coaches

Abstract

Special Olympics, the largest sport organization in the world for individual with intellectual disabilities is relatively a fast growing organization. To keep abreast with the inclusion movement Special Olympics introduced Unified Sports programmes in 1989. In a Unified Sports programmes equal numbers of Special Olympics athletes (young people with intellectual disabilities) and partners (young people without intellectual disabilities), of similar age and ability, play the same sport team during training and competition. In the Maltese scenario these programmes were introduced in a more tangible manner in 2012. These included Volleyball, Table Tennis and Bocce Unified Sports programmes. The main aims of the study include: investigating how Special Olympics Unified sports programmes assist social relationships amongst athletes of various intellectual abilities, assessing how the programmes endorses more understanding and acceptance of intellectual disabilities; and to discover the effects of a Special Olympics Unified Sports programmes on participants’ social and physical benefits, sport skills and experiences. A qualitative method using grounded theory approach was used and the data was gathered through interviewing 2 athletes, 2 partners and 2 coaches and fieldwork observation. Very close and meaningful relationships developed between the athletes and partners which were defined as family-like relationships and new friendships which they considered as important outcomes were established. Predominantly evident was that athletes developed and evolved a range of personal skills. An encouraging change either in their fitness level or in their playing and technical abilities was noted. An interesting change in the attitudes, understanding and acceptance towards people with intellectual disabilities was highly noticeable.