Berlin 2023 provides a platform to celebrate the extraordinary abilities and remarkable achievements of these athletes, challenge stereotypes, and help foster increased social inclusion worldwide. 

It’s an ambitious platform and one of the most exciting ones too. 

Beyond the playing field, the World Games will generate increased awareness about the importance of inclusive development for all nations, and the urgency of creating more inclusive communities. 

It is an urgent theme for developed and developing economies alike.    

Every sector of society plays an important role - including the critical role of media around the world.  

Through the commitment of leading broadcasters, Special Olympics is proud to have secured key broadcasting agreements with a myriad of outlets, highlighting the excitement of the event and moreover, underscoring the grit and determination of the athletes. 

As part of our long-standing and game-changing relationship with ESPN, a partner that has played a catalytic role in promoting inclusion globally, we have recently secured a remarkable agreement with the European Broadcasting Union and global sports video production and distribution agency SNTV.  

These agreements stand to amplify event highlights and athlete achievements from the World Games across their extensive distribution network of broadcast, digital, and social media outlets. 

This is a highly significant contribution - affording Special Olympics athletes to receive their rightful recognition, visibility and international awareness, and helping the Special Olympics movement reach untapped, eager audiences worldwide.

As the world's largest sporting and humanitarian event, the Special Olympics World Games possesses a proven ability to bring people together in cultural exchange, policy development and the creation of a shared vision of inclusive development where all benefit.  

To this end, the World Games in Berlin will witness the launch of the Special Olympics Global Leadership Coalition for Inclusion - a pioneering multilateral effort to make inclusion a part of the academic and social journey of all youth, benefitting individuals with and without intellectual disabilities alike.  

For the first time, Governments, the United Nations, corporate leaders, global philanthropy leaders and the global development community have come together with a shared global commitment to increase inclusive practices in education and sport, creating more inclusive schools, sports clubs and community centers. 

The inaugural members of the Global Leadership Coalition for Inclusion will convene to express their commitments to this platform for change, comprising of some 14 nations.  

Made possible through the generous support of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, the Global Leadership Coalition for Inclusion looks to expand the reach, impact and benefits of inclusive sports and educational opportunities to over 2,000,000 young people in more than 150,000 schools, scaling Special Olympics inclusive education through sports programming to 180 nations. 

The Coalition also include key global and civic stakeholders such as the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the World Health Organization (WHO), Lions Clubs International Foundation (LCIF), the Botnar Foundation, and H&M Move. 

The inaugural Coalition membership will look to inspire other national Governments, agencies, foundations and enterprises to join the effort. 

Through the creation of the Global Leadership Coalition for Inclusion and through the celebration of the Special Olympics World Games in Berlin, the vision of the movement of Special Olympics is both simple yet profound: when we as a global community can Play Unified- we can Learn Unified, and Live Unified too.  

That’s a vision that can unify the world - one athlete, one playing field, one school at a time.  

The establishment of the robust media network revealed at the World Games will bring this vision to life – empowering those who deserve it most.