World Games are the highest level of competition for Special Olympics. There are World Winter Games held every 4 years and World Summer Games held every 4 years. Like the Olympics Games, they are on a schedule so that every two years there is a World Games. Athletes selected for World Games are done so by nomination. A nomination process generally starts approximately 12-15 months prior to the start of the Games.
Prior to 2003, all World Summer Games events had been held in the United States, with only two World Winter Games events having been held elsewhere (1997 in Toronto, Ontario and 1993 in Salzburg and Schladming, Austria). In 2003, the World Summer Games were held in Dublin, Ireland. Nagano, Japan, played host to the next World Games outside the US, hosting the 2005 World Winter Games at many of the same venues that had been used for the 1998 Winter Olympics.
The World Games will take one more turn outside the United States before returning to the country of the program's birth when the 2007 World Summer Games are held in Shanghai, China. The 2007 World Games are expected to bring together more than 7,000 athletes from 169 countries, along with 40,000 volunteers and 3,500 games officials for what is sure to be a truly memorable experience. Team USA will send more than 400 athletes, including 16 from Kentucky, as well as 102 coaches (with eight Kentuckians) to the Games. The 2007 World Summer Games will be held Oct. 2-11, 2007, and will include competition in 24 different sports. Kentucky athletes will compete in Aquatics, Basketball, Bowling, Gymnastics and Track and Field at the Games.
For more information about the Kentucky effort for the 2007 World Summer Games or about how you can support Kentucky athletes going to the Games, please contact Special Olympics Kentucky Executive Vice President Trish Mazzoni at 800-633-7403 or via e-mail at tmazzoni@soky.org.
2005 World Winter Games Archive
(Click Here for More Information on Games in Individual Years)
1968 -- International Special Olympics Summer Games; Soldier Field; Chicago, IL
1970 -- International Special Olympics Summer Games; Chicago, IL
1972 -- International Special Olympics Summer Games; University of California at Los Angeles; Los 
Angeles, CA
1975 -- International Special Olympics Summer Games; Central Michigan University; Mt. Pleasant, MI
1977 -- International Special Olympics Winter Games; Steamboat Springs, CO
1979 -- International Special Olympics Summer Games; SUNY-Brockport; Brockport, NY
1981 -- International Special Olympics Winter Games; Smuggler's Notch and Stowe, VT
1983 -- International Special Olympics Summer Games; Louisiana state University; Baton Rouge, LA
1985 -- International Special Olympics Winter Games; Park City, UT
1987 -- International Special Olympics Summer Games; University of Notre Dame and St. Mary's College; South Bend, IN
1989 -- International Special Olympics Winter Games; Reno, NV
1991 -- World Summer Games*; Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN (* - Name officially changed for 1991 Games)
1993 -- World Winter Games; Salzburg and Schladming, Austria
1995 -- World Summer Games; New Haven, CT
1997 -- World Winter Games; Toronto, Ontario, Canada
1999 -- World Summer Games; Raleigh-Durham, NC
2001 -- World Winter Games; Anchorage, AK
2003 -- World Summer Games; Dublin, Ireland
2005 -- World Winter Games; Nagano, Japan
2007 -- World Summer Games; Shanghai, China
2009 -- World WInter Games; Boise, Idaho
