Adding It Up Special Olympics reaches its ambitious five-year goal to reach 2 million athletes around the world by Andrei Chursov 2005 marked the culmination of Special Olympics' five-year pursuit of worldwide aggressive growth and expansion. As of 31 December 2005, we can confidently state that the movement exceeded the most optimistic expectations: 2,256,733 Special Olympics athletes actively participated in training sessions and athletic competitions across the world. Between 2000 and 2005 participation in Special Olympics grew at a 129 percent rate with Special Olympics Programs reaching out to 1,270,760 new athletes. Explosive growth took place in Africa and East Asia, throughout Asia Pacific and the Middle East. As of 2005, the Special Olympics athlete population in Africa is 17.5 times larger than in the year 2000. The East Asia region grew almost six-fold, while the Asia Pacific and Middle East/North Africa regions currently serve, respectively, 5.2 and 4.2 times more athletes than five years ago. Special Olympics remains a very young organization. More than 67 percent of Special Olympics athletes are under the age of 22. At the same time, over the years, Special Olympics has been providing consistent training opportunities for male and female athletes. Currently the movement's athlete population is 36 percent female. Sports training and athletic competitions continue to constitute the core of the organization's activities. Despite the dynamic profile of the sports offerings menu, the top five sports have remained the same in 2000-2005; they are (in the order of popularity): athletics, basketball, football, bowling and aquatics. Within the last several years, bocce experienced a period of rapid growth, becoming the movement's sixth most popular sport in 2005. Even more surprisingly, the Motor Activities Training Program (MATP), offering training opportunities for lower ability athletes, has been steadily expanding over the years. Currently MATP serves 40,346 athletes (more than the sports of cross country skiing, figure skating and speed-skating combined). Special Olympics Unified Sports® also adds to the diversity of Special Olympics programming. Despite some setbacks in 2002 and 2003, the program regained popularity, growing by more than 13 percent in 2004 and accelerating to 30 percent growth in 2005. Overall, between 2002 and 2005, Special Olympics Unified Sports participation jumped 52 percent to include 49,874 athletes in 2005. Within the last five years Special Olympics has made great strides toward active worldwide growth in the number of athletes. However, the quest is far from complete. The new Special Olympics 2006-2010 Strategic Plan calls for reaching 3 million athletes by the end of 2010. Return to main Celebrating Growth page Chursov is Director of Organizational Development for Special Olympics, Inc.