Special Olympics to hold events at USC venues

Several competitions for the 2015 Special Olympics World Games will be held at USC facilities when Los Angeles hosts the games from July 25 to Aug. 2 for the first time since 1984.

Among the venues included as part of the games are the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, which will host the opening and closing ceremonies this summer, the Galen Center, Cromwell Field and the Uytengsu Aquatic Center.

In addition to USC, several venues throughout the county will be used, including facilities in Long Beach, Downtown, Griffith Park, Encino and UCLA.

Established in the 1960s by Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the sister of former President John F. Kennedy, the Special Olympics is the largest organization for athletes with intellectual disabilities. The organization began as a day camp at Shriver’s Maryland home. Since then, the competition has grown to include participants from more than 170 countries. The games alternate between summer and winter seasons and are held every two years. The 2015 games will be the first summer games hosted by a U.S. city since 1999. Recent hosts include Athens, Shanghai and Dublin.

Steven Vanderpool, senior vice president of communications and media operations for the Los Angeles 2015 Special Olympics, predicted a turnout of 7,000 athletes and 3,000 coaches at the 2015 games, and a half-million spectators are expected to attend. According to Vanderpool, however, that is a conservative estimate considering the promotion of the event has yet to reach its height.

“We have fantastic partners in terms of donating ad space on billboards, bus stations, TV and radio, “ Vanderpool said. “AMC Theatres is running a World Games trailer. Toyota is doing a number of events to bring awareness. Coca-Cola, who is no stranger to large sporting events, has actually been a partner of Special Olympics since day one.”

Vanderpool also commended his organizing partners at USC.

“Our main contact has been Dr. Carol Dougherty, who used to work with the athletic department. There are also a number of other departments that we work with. It’s been great,” Vanderpool said. “USC hosted the summer invitational this last year, [where] we ran a successful test event.”

Both USC and UCLA will host athlete villages; two-thirds of the athletes and coaches are staying at USC and another third will stay at UCLA.

Vanderpool said that performances for the opening and closing ceremonies are still yet to be confirmed. He did confirm, however, that Five Currents, a production firm based in Redondo Beach, would design the ceremonies. The company’s past projects include the London Olympics and Sochi Olympics.

Meghan Stephens, president of USC Best Buddies, said that the campus organization is promoting its members to independently volunteer for the event.

“Best Buddies supports the Special Olympics and works with [them] on many events including the Spread the Word to End the Word campaign [a campaign that is geared toward stopping the use of the word “retarded”],” Stephens said. “Because the event begins in July, the USC chapter is not participating as a whole because most members will not be at USC during summer vacation. However, we encourage all members [staying on campus] to volunteer and be involved in both the planning and execution of the Special Olympics.”

[Correction: An earlier version of this story stated that Dr. Carol Dougherty currently works with the Athletic Department at USC. She no longer works there now. The Daily Trojan regrets the error.]