Press release 2022/5 of the municipality of Rüdersdorf near Berlin
The municipality of Rüdersdorf near Berlin will host the Special Olympics World Games Berlin 2023. As the Organising Committee announced today, the municipality of Rüdersdorf near Berlin will be one of 216 host towns that will host a delegation of a participating nation, consisting of its athletes and their families, for four days from 12 to 15 June 2023 before the start of the competitions in Berlin (17 to 25 June 2023).
The Special Olympics is the largest sporting event for people with intellectual and multiple disabilities. The sports movement, which is officially recognised by the IOC, was founded in 1968 by Eunice Kennedy-Shriver, a sister of US President John F. Kennedy, and is now represented by 5.2 million athletes in 174 countries.
It has not yet been decided which delegation the municipality of Rüdersdorf near Berlin will be able to host. During this time, the athletes will be given the opportunity for light training, but above all the chance to acclimatise. The primary goal is to shape an open and diverse society, to create a new sense of togetherness and space for encounters far beyond the Special Olympics, and to bring the delegations "closer to the country and its people". The municipality of Rüdersdorf near Berlin is therefore part of the largest inclusion project in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany.
The municipality submitted its application in close coordination with local partners such as the Kalkberge Rowing Club, the Wiesenzirkus Bunterhund and the Stephanus Foundation's Marienhaus in autumn 2021.
Mayor Sabine Löser explains the successful bid:
"I am extremely pleased that we will be a host town and therefore part of the Special Olympics 2023 in Berlin. There is still a great fascination with such sporting events and it makes me extremely proud that we can be a part of this with our four districts
. We certainly have a lot of work ahead of us to give the delegation an appropriate reception. I hope that we as a community will maintain an atmosphere of cosmopolitanism, tolerance and inclusive coexistence in the long term and carry the spirit of the World Games with us far beyond the Games."