JUDY WOODRUFF: And now a look
at the impact of the Special
Olympics, 50 years after it

all began.

What started as a
small, little-noticed
competition in Chicago
is now a global movement.

It's helped change society's
attitudes toward people with
intellectual disabilities.

And, as John Yang reports,
their goal is inclusion far
beyond the playing field.

JOHN YANG: The summer of
1968, a nation in turmoil.

Protesters marched against
the war in Vietnam.

Urban riots erupted after
the assassination of
Martin Luther King, Jr.

But amid the tumult, an event
the likes of which the world
had never seen: an Olympics

for children with
intellectual disabilities.

It was July 20.

Eunice Kennedy Shriver spoke
during the opening ceremony at
Chicago's Soldier Field, just

six weeks after her brother
Robert had been killed.

EUNICE KENNEDY SHRIVER, Founder,
Special Olympics: In ancient
Rome, the gladiators went into

the arena with these words
on their lips: Let me win.

But if I cannot win, let
me be brave in the attempt.

Today, many of you will win.

But, even more important,
I know you will be brave.

Let us begin the Olympics.

Thank you.

JOHN YANG: About 1,000
competitors from 26 states and
Canada ran, swam, threw balls,

jumped and showed the world that
they could fully participate
in the rituals of childhood.

The event drew little
notice at the time.

But it sparked a change in
society's attitudes toward
the intellectually disabled.

Today, millions of athletes
train and compete in more than
100,000 events each year in some

170 nations.

Shriver died in 2009.

Her son Tim is now
Special Olympics chairman.

He recalls summers at
Camp Shriver, a forerunner
to Special Olympics.

In the early 1960s, the
family opened their Maryland
home to special needs kids.

TIM SHRIVER, Chairman, Special
Olympics: I remember the
buses arriving, school buses,

yellow school buses.

They would come
from institutions.

I didn't know where
they were coming from.

We all would salute the
flag and sing the national
anthem together in a circle.

I remember my backyard
becoming an amusement park.

You know, ponies arrived for
pony rides, and coaches arrived
to coach kickball games.

I remember playing with campers.

I mostly remember
that it was fun.

JOHN YANG: The first generation
of Special Olympics athletes
were born in a time when

the intellectually disabled
were shunned, often
hidden in institutions.

That would have been the case
for Loretta Claiborne, if not
for her mother's resistance.

Unable to walk or talk until
the age of 4, she went on to
become one of Special Olympics'

most decorated athletes.

LORETTA CLAIBORNE, Special
Olympics Athlete: If it wasn't
for Special Olympics, I think

I would be in prison or
seven -- six feet under.

JOHN YANG: Claiborne
got involved in Special
Olympics as a teenager.

LORETTA CLAIBORNE: It's
taught me about how to respect
myself, how to have acceptance

of myself, how to
respect someone else,
and it's OK to be me.

It's OK to be different and to
put the disability behind me
and put the ability in front of

me.

And that's what Special
Olympics taught me on
the track like this.

JOHN YANG: Claiborne has quite
literally been etched into
history in a painting of Eunice

Shriver at the National
Portrait Gallery in Washington.

Also in the artwork?

Marty Sheets, another
renowned Special Olympics
athlete who died in 2015.

His favorite sport was golf.

We spoke to Marty's father,
Dave, at the Sligo Creek Golf
Course outside Washington, which

often hosts Special
Olympics events.

Born with Down syndrome,
Marty went to the 1968 Chicago
Games from North Carolina.

It was the first time
he'd ever been on a plane.

But he got sick after
arriving and couldn't compete.

He still got a surprise
from Eunice Shriver.

DAVE SHEETS, Father of Marty
Sheets: She walked over to his
table and presented Marty with

a gold medal for having worked
so hard, done all of the things
he needed to do to get there,

but wasn't able to
participate at the time.

And that gold medal has
been absolutely famous,
as far as I'm concerned.

JOHN YANG: That first Special
Olympics began with a proposal
from a young Chicago Parks

gym teacher named Anne McGlone,
now Illinois State Supreme
Court Justice Anne Burke.

In 1968 she, was a
college dropout with
undiagnosed dyslexia.

She worked with intellectually
disabled children.

Her experience
gave her a thought.

JUSTICE ANNE BURKE, Illinois
Supreme Court: I just said,
well, the regular day camp has

a citywide jamboree.

All of Chicago gets
involved in it.

We should have jamboree down
at Soldier Field just like
that, and we can show everybody

that these children
have abilities.

That was the spark of it.

JOHN YANG: Burke took
her proposal to Shriver.

JUSTICE ANNE BURKE: She
said, this is not big enough.

You can't have just a
citywide track meet.

It has to be a large
track meet for everybody.

Invite everybody
around the country.

But to have this little jewel
start to have its heart beat
in Soldier Field, to come to

full fruition about a vulnerable
society, was under the radar.

JOHN YANG: This week,
the competition is
back where it began.

A highlight is the first
global Special Olympics
soccer tournament of
unified teams, players

both with and without
intellectual disabilities.

Cody Zimmer is a 25 year
old from DeKalb, Illinois.

He's been diagnosed
with mild autism.

This is his first time
on a unified team.

CODY ZIMMER, Special
Olympics Athlete: Normal
- - like, athletes from
like schools, I normally

usually have to play against
them, never with them, so
good learning experience.

JOHN YANG: Do you think
they're learning something too?

CODY ZIMMER: Yes, learning
that just because some
of us in Special Olympics
have disabilities

doesn't make us any different
from being normal people.

JOHN YANG: Seventeen-year-old
Cori Hoekstra plays
on the women's team.

She says she's gained
a lot from playing with
athletes with disabilities.

CORI HOEKSTRA, Special Olympics
Unified Partner: Each person
knows certain things, doesn't

know certain things, so you have
to adapt and work with them.

Definitely learned patience
and being able to help them
through it and not getting so

frustrated so quickly.

JOHN YANG: Fifty years after
the first Special Olympics were
held here at Chicago's Soldier

Field, the organization
has an ambitious goal for
the next half-century.

Tim Shriver says he wants people
with intellectual disabilities
fully integrated into society,

not just competing alongside
those without disabilities,
but going to school with them,

working with them,
living with them.

He calls it the
inclusion revolution.

TIM SHRIVER: Revolution
is strong language.

It implies a challenge
to the status quo.

It implies an opponent.

We cannot and we shouldn't
tolerate business or schools
or health care institutions or

sporting organizations
that say, we're open for
most, but not for you.

Those days must end.

JOHN YANG: Shriver hopes no one
mistakes the joy of the Games
for the seriousness of the

mission.

For the "PBS NewsHour,"
I'm John Yang in Chicago.