Nearly four million athletes and Unified Sports partners participate in Special Olympics, according to the organization’s website. Of the participants, over three million are people with intellectual disabilities, while over 600,000 more are Unified partners without intellectual disabilities. The two groups are integrated teams who compete against one another in a variety of sports.
Training, playing, and competing together, bonds are formed through people from all different backgrounds, in different places all around the world.
The University of Iowa is one of over 18,000 Unified Schools across the globe, housing multiple Unified leagues for sports such as flag football, soccer, basketball, and volleyball. Athletes with disabilities and Unified partners join forces to win games, advance to playoffs, and travel for various competitions. In 2021, Iowa was one of 68 schools in the country to be selected as a Special Olympics Unified Champion School, having met 10 standards of excellence, ranging from training to participation to engagement.
“One of the biggest benefits is [that] it’s two unique groups that may not connect as much without this opportunity, or at least not have this sort of opportunity to connect,” Colton Spaur, Iowa’s assistant director of intramural sports, said. “We provide that. They get to play alongside each other in sport. Everyone involved gets to be active and have those natural benefits of sport.”
Spaur started with the program as a student official in 2017, his first year at Iowa, and credited the programs as being an educational resource for its partners as well.
“For our partners, especially, it builds an awareness and understanding of how to interact and work with individuals with disabilities,” Spaur said. “It provides everyone with a sense of community and a lot of fun.”
Unified Sports has also provided opportunities for students in Iowa’s Realizing Education and Career Hopes, or REACH, Program to learn about and compete in sports that they enjoy.
For senior Desmond “Dez” Kapayou, this has even led to interning in a supervising capacity for Unified flag football, volleyball, and soccer as well as playing Unified basketball. Last year even saw Kapayou’s team advance to the league championships at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
Although his team lost, Kapayou credited the experience as an enjoyable one.
“We were in the lead, but we lost it at the end, and we lost by one point,” he said. “It taught us a lesson, but we’re playing to have fun.”
For UI medical student and Unified partner Madison Brewster, the experience has been nothing short of a highlight of her time at Iowa.
“It’s an opportunity for all kinds of people from different walks of life to come together, play sports together,” Brewster said. “We have all kinds of different seasons throughout the year.”
Brewster shares Kapayou and Spaur’s beliefs that the community aspect of Unified is a major benefit. After attending Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa, Brewster made easy connections in Iowa City.
“There’s a lot of athletes and families that have been a part of this community, this program, for such a long time, so it really does feel like a tight-knit group,” Brewster said. “I feel like when I came into the program, I was immediately welcomed by the whole group and had really fast connections. It’s a great way for a lot of people to get together and connect in a nonacademic setting.”
In particular, Brewster recalled a highlight of her time playing basketball at a tournament last year.
“We were competing in the nationals basketball tournament in Madison, Wisconsin, and we hit a game-winner to advance to the finals,” Brewster said. “That was pretty awesome, watching everybody celebrate. There was a lot of teamwork; I was involved in that play, too, to make it happen.”
When asked if he wanted to say or add anything about Unified Sports, Kapayou’s response was simple.
“Just come out and play with us.”