Young Athletes Program

Special Olympics Illinois has started a new program called Young Athletes. Basically, the Young Athletes program is an innovative sports play program for children ages 2-7 with intellectual disabilities and their peers, designed to introduce them into the world of sports. This program will prove enormously beneficial on multiple levels for your child. First and foremost, these activities will help the children improve physically, cognitively and socially. It will also serve as an introduction to the world of Special Olympics while showing resources and support available within Special Olympics Illinois.

This program is designed to address two specific levels of play. Level 1 includes physical activities focused on developing fundamental motor tracking and eye-hand coordination. Level 2 concentrates on the application of these physical activities through a sports skills activity program and developing skills consistent with Special Olympics sports play.

The activities consist of:

• Foundational Skills
• Walking and Running
• Balance and Jumping
• Trapping and Catching
• Throwing
• Striking
• Kicking
• Advanced Skills

We are very excited about this new program and are currently looking for potential families to be involved and sites to host the program. If you have any questions about the program, would like to get further involved or have questions in regards to Special Olympics, please contact the Young Athletes staff at Special Olympics Illinois.

View a video about the Illinois Young Athletes Program at YouTube.

Check out the inspiring Young Athletes Program stories.

• Hayes and Chase Porsche of Huntley
• Ella Rohde of Decatur
• Sarah Evans of Champaign
• Rachel Lamb of Peoria
• Gehrig Brown of Murphsyboro
• Jessica Sommerer of Schaumburg
• Jack and Amelia Langlois of Bloomington
• Hayden Mattheessen of Peoria
• Jake Skonieczny of District 54
• Isaiah Parsons of Highland
• Nathan Pfeifer of Elk Grove Village
• Jack Klawitter of Steger
• Sarah Ford of U-46
• Johnny of Mahomet
• Anthony "LT" and McKinley "Mac" Spears of Mattoon
• Brittany of Bethany
• Lilly Goodfellow of Naperville

Young Athletes documents are available for download below.