USC and Los Angeles to host the Special Olympics

USC will play host to both athletes and events of the Special Olympics Summer Games coming to Los Angeles at the end of July.

The Games will be held from July 25 to Aug. 2 and will kick off with a grand opening ceremony on the evening of July 25 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, which is incidentally the only venue in the world to have hosted two Summer Olympics, in 1932 and 1984. It has also played host to two Super Bowls, I and VII, and one World Series, in 1959. This is Los Angeles’s second Special Olympics, the previous one being held in 1999.

Nearly 7,000 athletes will compete for glory in these games across 25 sporting disciplines spread across 27 venues. Aquatics, basketball and track and field will be held at USC at the Uytengsu Aquatics Center, Galen Center and Cromwell Field, respectively.

The Special Olympics began as an initiative of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, sister of former President John. F. Kennedy, who started the Special Olympics as a way of breaking barriers for individuals with intellectual disabilities. What began in Chicago in 1968 is now a movement that encompasses more than 170 countries around the world and touches millions of lives.

The last Summer Games were held in Athens in 2011.  The next Special Olympics World Games event will be the Winter Games, to be held in Graz and Schladming in Austria in 2017.

Though no formal announcements have been made about the opening ceremony, Steven Vanderpool, senior vice president of communications and media operations for the Los Angeles Special Olympics 2015, said that it’s being handled like similarly large-scale events.

“We’ve roped in Five Currents, a production firm based in Redondo Beach, for the ceremonies. They have extensive expertise in handling events of such scale, and they’ve handled ceremonies for World Cups and even the London Summer Olympics among others,” Vanderpool said. “But the marquee event of that evening will be the march of the 7,000 athletes who are going to be participating in these games.”

Vanderpool confirmed that the ceremony would be a three-hour event that will be broadcast worldwide on the ESPN network.

Vanderpool said that upon the athletes’ arrival, they will be integrated into the local communities as part of the “Host Town” program of the games.

“We’ve been running this program since 1995 and as part of this initiative, more than 100 communities across Southern California stretching all the way to San Luis Obispo have been engaged to help athletes feel comfortable and experience local cultures and hospitality,” Vanderpool said.

Paige Peplow, a recent USC graduate, will be taking part in one of these Host Town programs in San Pedro. Peplow has been teaching dance classes to children with Down syndrome for the past eight years and has been asked to choreograph a dance for her students to perform at a dinner for athletes in San Pedro.

“I’m so honored to be a part of the Special Olympics organization because it’s an organization that is close to my heart,” Peplow said. “It’s especially great because I’ve been able to experience two of my worlds colliding with USC hosting the games.”

Peplow became involved in the Special Olympics through a contact she had met through the Marshall School of Business.

“It really happened completely by accident. I was put in touch with a Marshall alumna and had told her about my experience teaching dance to kids with Down syndrome, and the next thing I knew, one of the Host Town programs was asking me to help with the proceedings,” Peplow said. “I’m so grateful for this whole experience, and it has just been another example of the strength of the Trojan family.”

Transportation arrangements for athletes have been paramount to organizers, given the scale of events and the fact that the venues are spread across L.A.

“Keeping the travel to a bare minimum for the athletes is vital, and USC and UCLA will be our athletes’ villages for the games,” Vanderpool said. “During the games, two thirds of the delegates, totaling nearly 6,500 in number, [will] be staying at USC and the rest [will] be camped at UCLA.”

The organizers also realize the importance of having enthusiastic supporters in the stands, and the Fans In The Stands initiative aims to ensure just that. These Special Olympics will see volunteers captaining teams of spectators in the stands and doing their part to create an environment that will help athletes excel.

Tickets for the Opening Ceremony went on sale on June 2. Vanderpool said he is extremely pleased with the response thus far and is confident that Los Angeles will be able to deliver a successful and memorable games.