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Special Olympics is solely for athletes with intellectual disabilities. The Paralympics focus more on physical disabilities. The Olympics and Paralympics are about elite competition and specialization, and the athletes compete in Olympic and Paralympic Games only once every four years in their sport.

Special Olympics offers 30-plus Olympic-style individual and team sports that provide meaningful training and competition opportunities for persons with intellectual disabilities.

People with conditions such as Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, Attention Deficit Disorder, Asperger's Syndrome or challenging behaviour or similarly people with a physical or sensory impairment may not qualify for Special Olympics unless they ALSO have an intellectual (learning) disability.

Apart from that, Special Olympics and the Paralympics differ in three main areas: 1) the disability categories of the athletes that they work with, 2) the criteria and philosophy under which athletes participate, and 3) the structure of their respective organizations.

Special Olympics calls this competition-level matching “divisioning.” It's a fundamental rule at Special Olympics that athletes in competitions are matched up with others of the same gender, about the same age and most importantly, of about the same competitive ability.

The 89 athletes of Special Olympics Team Canada came home with a total of 96 medals at the Special...

In 1991, the name was officially changed from International Special Olympics Summer/Winter Games to Special Olympics World Summer/Winter Games.

Special Olympics is solely for athletes with intellectual disabilities. The Paralympics focus more on physical disabilities. The Olympics and Paralympics are about elite competition and specialization, and the athletes compete in Olympic and Paralympic Games only once every four years in their sport.