Prize Winner speech by Dr.Timothy Shriver, Chairman, Special Olympics International

Playing The Special Olympics Oath

These are the words of the Special Olympics oath, and they are especially meaningful to us today. We accept this great prize in the name of the uniter of east and west, Theophano and we accept it as a sign that our athletes have won victories of their own over division, over arrogance, and over despair. But we also accept it with a promise of bravery. This prize, after all, aims to do nothing less than “reimagine Europe,” and that’s going to require bravery! But Special Olympics athletes are the bravest in the world and if anything needs reimagining, they’re the ones to do the reimagining with bravery! Today, their task is Europe, but everyday, it’s the world!

As we gather today and remember Theophano and the long history of Europe, we can hear the echoes of Athens and the awakening of the idea born not far from here—the idea of the citizen—a human being responsible to others, a human being bound by the high calling of an ethical life. And we can feel the great ideals of the East—the faith traditions so deeply rooted in spirit and the great monastics and scholars who taught the journey to the soul. And on the western edge of Europe, we remember not just empires and battles, but also the Magna Carta—the emergence of equality as the guarantee of governments. Ethics. Spirit. Equality—these are among the many gifts that we celebrate as gifts of the European mind, emerging from the diversity of human gifts and from the unbounded gifts of human diversity.

But whether in Athens or Istanbul; Sofia or Berlin; Rome or Paris; Madrid or Dublin, when the great questions have been asked — “What is the value of a life?” “What is the beauty of the spirit?” “What is the good in government?” “What are the markings of responsible citizens?”… rarely have any answers given been good for people with intellectual disabilities. These great ideals are sadly, just words on a page for our brothers and sisters with intellectual disabilities.

Theirs is instead a tragic history in which people with intellectual disabilities and their families have been broadly and often cruelly denied even the most basic rights and opportunities. The words they’ve heard ring with venom: “You are a curse; you are hopeless; you are defective.” And the actions have often been equally cruel—isolation, institutionalization and even torture and death.

As we gather, we can’t help but mourn what was lost to Europe and the whole world —the smiles of children, the love of brothers and sisters, the pride of parents — all crushed by cruelty.

But the pain of this history reveals an even deeper truth: whenever a child with intellectual disabilities was denied, the sacred dignity of every human being was denied too. Looking back, we can see the dividends of discrimination: either we are all created with dignity or none of us are. What was lost when the walls of exclusion were raised was nothing less than dignity itself — nothing less than the underpinning of democracy, the power of spirit, the promise of equality. All are mocked by dehumanizing contempt and today, we must admit with grief, that is what people with intellectual disabilities have endured.

We see the past only to learn how to see more clearly today, and if we want to learn how to see, we need look no further than the movement you so generously celebrate today. Over 60 years ago, my mother invited some 50 children with intellectual disabilities to her home and she put on a bathing suit and got into the pool. “I just wanted to teach children with intellectual disabilities to swim,” she told me towards the end of her life, “I wanted to prove to them and to the world that they could do it.” She was joined by other brave mothers and young volunteers who took a stand for dignity. What they did was simple: they met each other; they played with each other. They celebrated the effort and bravery and skill in each other. Not a complex formula.

What happened? Experts scoffed. Politicians paid little attention. Few believed. But when the human spirit is freed from scorn and fear, watch out! What followed those pioneering days was a massive outpouring of the best of us — a worldwide wave of justice and joy.

Today, the Special Olympics movement boasts over 70k games every year — games in countries and provinces, cities and towns, games in villages and schools, games in refugee camps and war zones. And every single one of them offers anyone who comes a front row seat for the best in humanity; each event, an invitation to learn anew how to see the gifts in everyone. As the ancient Olympians anticipated, games are rituals of awakening to human greatness—and the discovery that each of us has the capacity to be great is the engine of our inclusion revolution.

Should you doubt that it is really possible to mount a revolution with the tools of sport, doubt no more!

While all this might give us great pride, we cannot miss the realities all around us: today we face an epidemic of fear and contempt. Loneliness is soaring; anxiety is the daily reality for millions; families are torn apart by politics; and the specter of an ever-rising tide of contempt leads millions to fear the future. The champions of Special Olympics may shine in sports but far too frequently, they are still denied health care, still denied school, still denied a chance to live in a community that welcomes them, still denied friends. To create a tolerant Europe or a Dignity Europe may seem more difficult than ever.

In such times, countries and leaders may be forgiven for clinging to tradition and the past — for telling us to find belonging in traditional communities and cultures and faith traditions. Belonging is good and healthy. We all need it.

But the world can longer accept the idea that my belonging must come at the expense of yours; we can no longer condone dehumanization of others as a method of building cohesion for ourselves; we can no longer build communities for some and exclusion for those who are different. The days of winning one’s own sense of belonging by exclusion and contempt must end.

We have the role models for the job! Today, we celebrate the vanguard of a new Europe of dignity for all and we celebrate the leaders of that Europe: the athletes of Special Olympics. Today, Greece, Europe and all people of goodwill are here to recognize that the athletes of Special Olympics are the true inheritors of the vision of the Empress Theophano. Like her, they have shown that they can cross divides and teach the lessons of dignity for all. And in their own time, they have shown that they can reinvent the power of sport, teach the power of inclusion, contribute to building up citizens dedicated to the inclusion revolution. It may be the role of the Special Olympics movement to offer athletes respect and equality and opportunity, but the athletes have returned far more. They have offered the world a model of freedom itself; freedom based in God-given dignity; freedom from the callous judgements of greed and domination; freedom to live with the fearless trust that we are each enough.

The work before us is daunting and yet specific: to open the doors of health justice through sport; to teach the power of inclusive education through sport; to awaken citizens to the voices of inclusive leaders through sport; to change the course of nations through the example of the best athletes in the world. We can do all that and more if only we use the original formula: meet; play; celebrate gifts. That’s it. It works for all of us. And it’s more urgent than ever.

This great prize inaugurates our new era of commitment, but most especially, it invites us to look at our athletes. Athletes: you have trained to be victors; may your best shine through. In the world we hunger to build, no one wins unless all win too. Be brave, be bold, be winners for all the world to see. But above all, show the world how it feels to be free.

Thank you.