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Healthy Athletes® is a Special Olympics program that provides free health screenings and health education in a fun, welcoming environment with a focus on removing the anxiety people with intellectual disabilities often experience when faced with a visit to a medical professional. The impact of Healthy Athletes on the health and wellness of Special Olympics athletes around the world is significant! Since 1997, Healthy Athletes has discovered undetected health problems, alleviated pain and provided health services that otherwise would not be available. Healthy Athletes is not only a program for athletes but, through training and hands-on experience at screenings, it is a program for health care students and professionals to increase knowledge of best practices in caring for people with intellectual disabilities.
FUNfitness is a physical therapy event that addresses the ongoing health needs of Special Olympics athletes. FUNfitness provides athletes the opportunity to be screened for flexibility of hamstring, calf, shoulder rotator and hip flexor muscles; functional strength of the abdominal and lower extremity muscles, and for balance. During these screenings, physical therapists, related professionals and students offer athletes expert guidance and exercises recommendations to prevent and reduce the risk of injury, and to improve the athletes’ optimal function in sports training and competition.