Healthy Athletes
Healthy Athletes is a worldwide health program through which Special Olympics volunteers and partners improve the health of people with intellectual disabilities and address health conditions such as chronic pain, disease, blindness, hearing loss, and shortened life span that needlessly affect this underserved population.
What Makes Up Healthy Athletes?
There are eight Healthy Athlete screening areas:
Under the Fit Feet program, volunteer health care professionals screen athletes’ feet and ankles for deformities, skin, and nail problems, and also check for proper shoes and socks. Clinicians make community referrals as needed and athletes, coaches, and families are educated on the proper shoes and socks.
Clinician Requirements: Doctor of Podiatric Medicine
Currently offered by SOSD
This is the comprehensive physical therapy component of the Special Olympics Healthy Athletes initiative. FUNfitness is designed to assess and improve flexibility, stamina, functional strength and balance, educate participants, families, and coaches about the importance of flexibility, strength, and balance, and provide a hands-on opportunity for participants to learn about physical therapy.
Clinician Requirements: Licensed Physical Therapist
Currently offered by SOSD
Perhaps the basis of all components of Special Olympics Healthy Ahtletes, Health Promotion seeks to find the best ways to convey and reinforce key concepts and information to participants. Health Promotion venues empower and motivate athletes to make healthy lifestyle choices that will improve their long-term health by using interactive educational games and literature. Athletes are offered guides for healthy eating, sun safety, smoking cessation, lifestyle choices, and fun ways to increase physical fitness.
Clinician Requirements: Dietician, Physician, Nurse, PT, Health Educator
The purpose of Healthy Hearing is to screen the hearing of athletes and notify athletes and their coaches if follow-up care is needed. Healthy Hearing venues may also provide corrective (hearing aids) and preventative (custom swim earplugs) services where possible, and study the prevalence of hearing loss in athletes competing in Special Olympics events.
Clinician Requirements: Audiologist or Speech-Language Pathologist
Currently offered by SOSD
At a Special Smiles screening, Special Olympics athletes are provided with hygiene education, a “goody-bag” containing toothbrush, toothpaste and floss, nutritional education, and a free mouth guard.
Clinician Requirements: Licensed Dentist or Dental Hygienist
Currently offered by SOSD
The mission of Special Olympics – Lions Club International Opening Eyes is to improve the quality of life for the millions of individuals diagnosed with intellectual disabilities by health and visual skills through quality eye care. Under the Opening Eyes program, extensive vision screenings are conducted. Athletes are then provided with free prescription eye glasses, sport wear glasses, and sunglasses as warranted.
Clinician Requirements: Vision Care Professional, Licensed Optometrist or Ophthamologist
Strong Minds is an interactive learning activity focused on developing adaptive coping skills. Competition provides a natural opportunity to develop active strategies for maintaining emotional wellness under stress, such as: thinking positive thoughts, releasing stress and connecting with others. Athletes learn about and try a few different active coping strategies as they move through the stations. Before exiting, athletes identify the strategies they like best and volunteers provide them with visual reminders to use these tools in competition and in daily life.
Clinician Requirements: Psychologist, Licensed Counselor, Social Worker
Currently offered by SOSD
We currently conduct Fit Feet, FUNfitness, Healthy Hearing, Strong Minds, and Special Smiles clinics during our State Summer Games. We are actively working toward offering screenings in all eight Healthy Athlete areas.
Interested in getting involved with Healthy Athletes? Please contact Johna Thum at 605.331.4117 or jthum@sosd.org.
For more information, visit the Healthy Athletes page on the Special Olympics website.
Physical fitness is a key part of the Special Olympics mission. Fitness is more than training for a sports season, it means staying physically active and practicing good nutrition and hydration habits year-round and lifelong. Athletes and teams across the state have been putting in the time and effort to improve their health and fitness through our Fit 5 programming and clubs.
Unified Spartans Crush Their Fitness Challenge
From February 10 to April 7, 2025, there was a lot of wrist checking throughout the school day at Spearfish High School. Students and staff weren’t bored; they were looking forward to the end of the day, checking their step totals.
Along with tracking daily steps, 8 athletes, 2 Unified Partners, and 5 Staff learned about nutrition, hydration, and emotional wellness.
Recently, I talked with teacher Chris Geuke and 12th grader Rowan Espinoza over Zoom to learn about their Fitness Challenge.
Johna: Tell me what you learned about eating healthy.
Rowan: It’s important. You should eat a healthy breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day.
Johna: Did you learn anything else about staying healthy?
Rowan: We learned about drinking water. Soda is not healthy.
Johna: As a part of the program, students and unified partners received Fitbits to track steps. What did you think about your Fitbit?
Rowan: I liked it. It was fun counting steps and competing with classmates.
Johna: Chris, can you describe your program?
Chris: The Fitbits were a hit. They helped students buy into the program. I think their fitness output increased because of them. The pre-program and post-program Lifestyle surveys were great talking points and facilitated class discussion.
Johna: Did your students utilize their devices over the weekends?
Chris: Yes! The devices greatly contributed to parent buy-in as well. I don’t think it would have been there if it weren’t for the Fitbits.
Johna: Did you utilize the Special Olympics Fitness app?
Chris: Yes, for some students. Others preferred the paper trackers. This also had benefits for students. They were able to work on math skills in a fun and practical way.
Johna: Anything you would change?
Chris: We had a goal of 10,000 steps daily. 7,000 would be a better goal.
Johna: Would you consider participating in future Fitness Challenges?
Chris: Yes, for sure! We’ve already brainstormed regarding ways to expand it school-wide. This could be a great leadership opportunity for our students.
Black Hills Works Athletes Move, Listen, and Learn Toward Better Health & Fitness
The second prong of our structured fitness programming was carried out by athletes at Black Hills Works. Fitness Leaders Danette, Alexys, and Josh worked with four cohorts of athletes during each 6-week program.
Participants were provided with Fitbits and step-tracking sheets. Pre and post-Lifestyle surveys and weights were also completed. Athletes set step and nutrition goals during class.
Fitness Leader Danette described class as follows: “Conversations were so good, and everyone seemed to retain the information from week to week. Wow, the athletes are LOVING it! Fitbits are working out well. We have a few who are learning how to sync it to their phones, but ALL are doing manual sheets with their step totals. There have even been competitions between the group! Fitness leader Alexys gave athletes tracking sheets in folders, including the Fit 5 trackers. Participants are all so honest. Two of the guys hate veggies and didn’t have them marked off at all for the whole week. Alexys has been working with them to find ways to enjoy vegetables, which then sparks great conversations with the whole group!”
The following is an interview with Fitness Leader Alexys.
Name: Alexys Schille
Education: Registered Nurse
Johna: Why did you want to be involved in this program?
Alexys: I’ve done similar programming with athletes from BHW in the past. Being in the health profession, I could see the need.
Johna: Describe what an average class looked like.
Alexys: We met for an hour after Basketball practice, which helped with attendance. We used Fit 5 cards to talk about the differences in exercises for strength, stretching, and endurance. We then completed exercises from each category and discussed the benefits. Athletes also gave examples of other exercises they could do. When discussing nutrition, we came up with ideas on how to add vegetables to our diets and ways to make them taste better. Vegetables aren’t very popular, it seems.
Johna: What were your expectations coming into class?
Alexys: I had no idea what the athletes would know
about nutrition. Classes were comprised of adults, and it’s been a long time since they were in school. General knowledge was greater than expected. For example, when asked to name foods high in protein, they answered chicken and yogurt.
Johna: What were the results of class?
Alexys: The last night of programming, I asked everyone to state their biggest takeaway. One athlete demonstrated the stretches he was doing daily. Another talked about adding cauli rice to his meals. That is a win over vegetables! Athletes loved the Fitbit. One athlete with a 10,000-step goal hit it during basketball practice. He was pretty excited, and it was an incentive for him to continue moving.
Johna: In a year from now, do you think the athletes will be applying what they learned?
Alexys: I think for some it will become a habit. For others, they might need more on-going classes, but every little bit of knowledge and skill acquisition is a win.
Johna: Should other Delegations run this program?
Alexys: Absolutely! Everyone can benefit from it. The Fitbits brought an additional level of buy-in to the program. Seeing your steps add up was reinforcing and educational. The biggest piece of advice I have for others is to run a program during outdoor seasons. Walking is gold!