Unified Sports

Unified Sports, as offered by Special Olympics Québec, is unique and unprecedented in Quebec. It creates inclusion, breaks isolation, eliminates prejudice and fights against stigmatization. It is a structuring community initiative for Quebec society. Unified Sports offers a host of opportunities for unlikely encounters that enrich the lives of Special Athletes and Unified Partners. It allows partners to meet up with and interact with a person with an intellectual disability.

Unified Sports brings people together thanks to a shared interest like sports, which bridges differences. It facilitates bonding and breaks down prejudices. Implemented as early as primary schools, Unified Sports offers an opportunity to create links at a stage of life when prejudices against people who are “different” aren’t, or are only weakly, established.

In addition to being a vehicle for social change through the unlikely meeting of people with an intellectual disability with people without an intellectual disability, Unified Sports has a decisive impact on the training of health professionals, students, elected officials, and communities. Unified Sports contributes to creating a more inclusive, humane, and open society.