Four sports. Two weekends. And more than 3,300 participants. The Special Olympics Minnesota Summer Games return this weekend.
It's a busy time of year for everyone involved. Derek Schiebel is an event lead for the games.
"A very chaotic part of the year, but it's the most fun part of the year as well," says Schiebel. "It really gets our whole organization together too. Whether that be volunteers, development, health, it's really a team effort over here on our side of things."
And the facilities hosting the event?
"These are some state of the art venues," explains Schiebel. "Century Middle School, where we're hosting this swimming this upcoming weekend, built a new aquatic center in 2022, I believe was when it was finished. It's ridiculous. It's an insane venue. And with Stillwater, we've got eight basketball courts going on. We've got track, we've got field. When you show up, you're going to go, oh my gosh, there's so many people here."
Schiebel said he expects well over 1,300 volunteers to help out over the next two weekends.
There are plenty of misconceptions about the competitors, but one thing is certain, the participants are definitely athletes.
"They are athletes they want to win, but I feel like our coaches and athletes do a really good job of emphasizing the other great takeaways that people get from sports," Schiebel says. "You're not going to win every game, you're not going to make every basket, you're not going to score every goal. But there's a lot of other positive takeaways that happen in the world of sports and I think that's something that our athletes do an amazing job with."
These games are just a prelude for 2026 when Minnesota hosts the Special Olympics USA Games.