The following provides a short list of Special Olympics terms and their meaning.

Application for Participation

Form for pertinent athlete information, including emergency contacts and medical alert conditions. Must be completed by a medical examiner prior to participation in Special Olympics.

Area

An area is one of five geographical divisions of the state. The area is made up of the local teams that are located in the geographical area.

Area Competition

Preliminary Competition prior to any of the State events. These provide additional competitive opportunities for athletes as well as entry scores for state competition.

Area Director

Responsible for the coordination of all aspects of Special Olympics Wyoming within a pre-determined geographical area of Wyoming.

Athlete

An individual with intellectual disabilities that trains for a minimum of 8 weeks and competes at least once per year in an Olympic-style competition with Opening and Closing Ceremonies at any level (local, area, state, national, regional, world).

“A” Volunteer

Any person who volunteers for Special Olympics Wyoming as a coach, chaperone, driver, overnight host, Unified Sports Partner or otherwise in a manner that results in regular close contact with Special Olympics athletes. Additionally, volunteers who may assume administrative or fiscal duties such as Committee Members, Event Directors or Board Members are considered “A” volunteers.

“C” Volunteer -“C”

Category Volunteers are single event, one-day or walk-on volunteers who have minimal close contact with athletes.

Coach

The individual charged with training athletes in a specific sport.  Coaches must be certified through Special Olympics.

Consent Form

Each athlete is required to submit a consent form in order to participate.

Division

The competitive grouping of 3-8 athletes based on age, ability and gender.

Local Program

A Local Program is a school, organization or training group made up of athletes registered within Special Olympics Wyoming.

Medical

Same as Application for Participation

Unified Champion Schools

This is a North American program funded through the Department of Education to support and promote youth activation and involvement. A competitive grant is submitted annually to support Unified Champion Schools. Currently Wyoming’s focus is on Unified Sports®, Young Athlete Program ™ and student involvement in Spread the Word to End the Word Campaigns.

REGION

US Region

The United States is divided for the purposes of management into eight regions including New England, Mid-Atlantic, Southeast, Great Lakes, North Central, South Central, Northwest and Southwest.

Global Region

The World is divided into seven Global Regions including North America, Latin America, Europe/Eurasia, Middle East, Africa, Asia/Pacific, and Indo-China.

Staging

The area used to collect athletes as they prepare to compete. This is used to place athletes into correct competitive heats or divisions.

State Competition

Summer Games | Winter Games | Summer Sports Classic | Fall Tournament

Time Trials

An event run at the same location as the competition to establish scores to division athletes for final competition.

Unified Sports®

A program that combines approximately equal numbers of Special Olympics athletes with athletes without intellectual disabilities (partners) on sports teams for training and competition. Age and ability matching of athletes and partners is specifically defined on a sport by sport basis.

Unified Sports Partner

A person without an intellectual disability who trains in a Special Olympics sport and who competes at least once in a Special Olympics Games or competition at any level (local, area, state, regional, national, world) during the calendar year.

Alphabet Soup

All those initials and acronym’s sometimes it seems like a whole separate language in Special Olympics. Here’s a list to help you out Items highlighted are the most commonly used acronym’s at Special Olympics Wyoming.