Health Promotion Across the Life Span for Special Olympics Athletes

A life span approach to health promotion serves as a foundational strategy in Special Olympics programming for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). This global approach integrates two key interventions-Young Athletes and fitness programming-to address barriers to health equity and promote healthy lifestyles for people with IDD. Evaluations demonstrate improvements in motor development and cardiovascular health. Success across programming highlights the use of scalable models to improve health outcomes for people with IDD. (Am J Public Health. 2026; 116(S2):S66-S69. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2026.308502).