Special Olympics has message bigger than sports

LOS ANGELES — Loretta Claiborne grew up with intellectual disabilities in the 1960s and was told she wasn't good enough. Not simply because she was black or female. Because, in other individuals' words, she was "retarded." She was born partially blind and unable to talk or walk until the age of four.

"Do I feel discriminated because of the color of my skin? Yes, a little. But the real discrimination that still exists today is because of my intellectual disabilities," said Claiborne, a 62-year-old Special Olympian who's completed 25 marathons, twice finishing as one of the top 100 women in the world in the Boston Marathon. "Martin Luther King Jr. once said, 'faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.' My message to everyone with intellectual disabilities is to have faith. Women at one time weren't recognized that they could be in the workforce. But they had faith."

The Special Olympics World Games, currently underway in Los Angeles, serve as a major platform to evoke change around the world by shifting viewers' perceptions of people with intellectual disabilities.

"I'm just one of millions," Claiborne said. "These athletes compete to be the best in their sport, and they'll take what they learned on the playing field into life where we have a long way to go."

Special Olympics Chairman Timothy Shriver believes the World Games offer something vividly different than any other sporting event.

"We spend our whole life judging things by their covers. There's another side of us that can actually see at a different level," Shriver told USA TODAY Sports. "We just don't train the muscle very well. The Special Olympics is a like a big training ground for the spirit muscle. The spirit muscle doesn't see hair color, skin color, age, height, religion and race. It doesn't see nationality. It sees soul, it sees longing, it sees desire, it sees hunger. And it sees love. All of a sudden, it's like a sixth sense gets turned on for everyone who watches."

"This is a place where athletes can win without defeating anybody," Shriver added. "Most people feel like in order to win in life, you have to beat someone, you have to win and someone else has to lose. There's a whole other side of life. What you discover here is sport as an expression of human desire. ...In some ways, I think we're scared of that beauty. Because when you see someone fall and get up or someone in first place goes to help that person up, those kinds of things can't be communicated with words. If we paid attention to this more, the sports page would look a lot different."

On Sunday, the opening day of the World Games and the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, Shriver co-hosted a global development roundtable that featured world leaders, government officials, top businessmen and former professional athletes with a mission to enhance inclusion for people with intellectual disabilities.

"I believe sport has a power to change society and change the world," said former NBA star Dikembe Mutombo, a board member of Special Olympics International. "In Africa, it's much worse. People with intellectual disabilities are considered to be a curse to the family. Kids become orphans because their parents don't want them. When I'm asked why the Special Olympics are important, I say to save lives."

UCLA football coach Jim Mora has been involved with Special Olympics for 34 years because his wife, Shannon, has a sister, Whittney, with Down syndrome. He has involved his players, and served as a co-chair with his wife for Manhattan Beach's role as a host town. Athletes from Hungary and Nepal spent several days in the community before competing in the Games.

A 7.8-magnitude earthquake rocked Nepal in April, killing nearly 10,000. "Seeing (Nepal's) athletes at the beach, enjoying themselves (pauses), that's unity," Mora said.

"What's always resonated with me about Special Olympic athletes is the joy of competition. The looks on their faces when they cross the finish line whether they're in first place or last place, they're doing it together and that joy captivates you. You can see how empowering it is to them."

First Lady Michelle Obama addressed a crowd of 62,338 at the Los Angeles Coliseum on Saturday for the Opening Ceremony. "Over the past few years, my husband and I have seen Americans unite in so many ways across the country," she said. "These Games are a perfect reflection of that unity. They show us that we're all in this together — that we can lift up our friends and neighbors, and that we can bring out the best in each other to reach even higher heights."

While the Special Olympics lack the magnitude of the original five-ringed sporting spectacle, it offers a unique camaraderie and atmosphere that's contagious.

"I've been lucky to go to Super Bowls, several North Carolina-Duke games and the Olympics at London. But the Special Olympics is far superior for so many reasons," said actress and supermodel Brooklyn Decker, a Global Ambassador who has a 40-year old aunt with intellectual disabilities and is married to former tennis star Andy Roddick. "What I think people don't understand is the competition is not lost. They're still there to win, they want to win gold, they train and work so incredibly hard for years. They're not giving out congeniality awards. They learn the value of losing, the value of winning. In the same vein, in most sports, you don't see athletes hugging and consoling each other. In most sports, there's not the greater meaning of what relationships and what life is all about. Special Olympic athletes have an understanding for the human condition that athletes neglect when they're playing. They have compassion we don't see in professional sports."

Paula Abdul, judge for So You Think You Can Dance and a former American Idol judge, is ecstatic the World Games are in Los Angeles for Hollywood stars like herself to be inspired.

"In all my years of dancing and teaching and judging, for me, heart always wins out — someone who has their own style and is brave and bold enough in their own spotlight," Abdul said. "What I love about Special Olympics is that these athletes operate with what they know. It's 100% pure heart."

Shriver said the worst kind of fear is the fear of difference and that Special Olympians provide a wake-up call to those watching in person or on ESPN to jumpstart the "revolution of the heart." However, in the grand scheme of things, Shriver is far from satisfied.

"If this is a show that ends Sunday, that people watch, that people enjoy, it's a failure. These Games must be a challenge," Shriver said. "What has happened in this country, around the world is positive. But it is far from enough."