2025 Special Olympics World Winter Games
| Host city | Turin, Italy |
|---|---|
| Motto | The Future is Here (Italian: Il futuro è qui) |
| Nations | 101 (expected) |
| Athletes | 1,500 (expected)[1] |
| Events | 8 sports |
| Opening | 8 March 2025 |
| Closing | 15 March 2025 |
| Main venue | Inalpi Arena (opening) Via Lattea (closing) |
| Website | www |
| Summer | |
| Winter | |
The 2025 Special Olympics World Winter Games, officially known as the XII Special Olympics World Winter Games. and commonly known as Turin 2025 (Italian: XII Giochi Mondiali Invernali Special Olympics), was an international multi-sport event. It was the 12th Special Olympics World Winter Games.[2] They took place in Turin, Piedmont, Italy from 8 to 15 March 2025. This marked the first time that Italy hosted the Special Olympics World Games.[3]
Host selection
[edit]The bid was presented in 2021 by the Government of Italy, the Piedmont Region, the City of Turin, the Italian National Olympic Committee, the Italian Paralympic Committee and Angelo Moratti, president of Special Olympics Italy.[4] The original scheduled dates were between 29 January to 9 February 2025. According to the bidding, the ceremonies were planned to be held at Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino, which had been renovated for the 2006 Winter Olympics and Paralympics. It is expected that there would be around 3,125 athletes, 3,000 volunteers, and 100,000 spectators.[4]
On 16 July 2021, Turin was awarded the World Games by Special Olympics International.[5][6] At the conclusion of the 2023 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Berlin, it was officially announced that the next Winter Games will take place in Turin from 8 to 16 March 2025.[7]
Representatives
[edit]Second lady of the USA Usha Vance led the United States presidential delegation to the games.[8]
The Games
[edit]Venues
[edit]The following venues were used:[9]
Turin
[edit]- Inalpi Arena - opening ceremony, floorball
- Palasport Tazzoli - figure skating, short track speed skating
Mountains
[edit]- Melezet, Bardonecchia - snowboarding
- Palazzo delle Feste, Bardonecchia - dancesport
- Pragelato Plan - cross-country skiing
- Via Lattea, Sestriere - closing ceremony, alpine skiing, snowshoeing
Sports
[edit]The following eight sports were held:[3][5][10]
Alpine skiing ()
Cross-country skiing ()
Dancesport ()
Figure skating ()
Floorball ()
Short track speed skating ()
Snowboarding ()
Snowshoeing ()
Calendar
[edit]- All times and dates use Central European Time (UTC+01:00)
| OC | Opening ceremony | ● | Event competitions | 1 | Gold medal events | CC | Closing ceremony |
| March 2025 | March | Events | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8th Sat |
9th Sun |
10th Mon |
11th Tue |
12th Wed |
13th Thu |
14th Fri |
15th Sat | |||
 Ceremonies |
OC | CC | — | |||||||
 Alpine skiing
|
● | 27 | 32 | ● | 42 | 101 | ||||
 Cross-country skiing
|
● | ● | 21 | 30 | 32 | 17 | 100 | |||
 Dancesport
|
● | ● | 12 | 9 | 21 | |||||
 Figure skating
|
6 | 9 | 5 | 20 | ||||||
 Floorball
|
● | ● | ● | 11 | 3 | 14 | ||||
 Short track speed skating
|
● | ● | 30 | 30 | 60 | |||||
 Snowboarding
|
16 | 9 | 8 | 3 | 36 | |||||
 Snowshoeing
|
● | ● | 46 | 35 | 22 | 103 | ||||
| Daily medal events | 16 | 63 | 167 | 125 | 84 | 455 | ||||
| Cumulative total | 16 | 79 | 246 | 371 | 455 | |||||
| March 2025 | 8th Sat |
9th Sun |
10th Mon |
11th Tue |
12th Wed |
13th Thu |
14th Fri |
15th Sat |
Total events | |
| March | ||||||||||
Medal table
[edit]Unlike the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the Special Olympics do not provide an official medal table, since there is supposed to be no competitive pressure among the nations. Apart from the medals and placement ribbons, participants who were disqualified or did not finish their competition were also awarded with participation ribbons in order to promote sportsmanship.
* Host nation (Italy)
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Totals (0 entries) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
Marketing
[edit]
The application ran under the slogan The Future is Here.[12]
The following design was chosen for the logo: Turin's landmark, the Mole Antonelliana, and Alps that are stylized, combined with the shape of a snowflake and arranged in a circle around the Special Olympics logo.[12][5]
External links
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ "2025 Special Olympics World Winter Games: The Allianz Stadium hosts the torch!". Yahoo Sports. 2025-03-05. Retrieved 2025-03-07.
- ^ "Nomination open for Torino 2025 Special Olympics World Winter Games". Special Olympics Great Britain. 2023-12-12. Retrieved 2024-02-17.
- ^ a b Compresso AG. "World Winter Games - Special Olympics Switzerland". specialolympics.ch (in Swiss High German). Retrieved 2023-08-02.
- ^ a b "Turin bid to hold 2025 Winter Special Olympics in run-up to Milan-Cortina 2026". 2021-02-28. Retrieved 2023-08-02.
- ^ a b c Redazione Agenzia Nova (2021-07-16). "The 2025 Winter Special Olympics assigned to Turin". Agenzia Nova. Retrieved 2023-08-02.
- ^ Redazione Ideawebtv.it (2021-07-16). "A Torino e in Piemonte gli Special Olympics invernali 2025". www.ideawebtv.it - Quotidiano on line della provincia di Cuneo (in Italian). Retrieved 2023-08-02.
- ^ "Special Olympics: Fabio Grosso drückt den Italienern die Daumen und denkt an Berlin 2006" (in German). 2023-06-24. Retrieved 2023-08-02.
- ^ Martin, Chantz (March 6, 2025). "Second lady Usha Vance will lead presidential delegation at Special Olympics World Winter Games, Trump says". Fox News. Retrieved March 6, 2025.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Special Olympics World Winter Games Turin 2025. "Venues". Retrieved 9 February 2025.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ "NEWS - Special Olympics Italia presenta la candidatura per i Giochi Mondiali Invernali - Torino 2025". Retrieved 2023-08-04.
- ^ "Competition Schedule – Special Olympics World Winter Games Turin 2025". results.specialolympics.org. Retrieved 2025-03-23.
- ^ a b "Assegnati a Torino gli Special Olympics invernali del 2025 - Consulta per le persone in difficoltà" (in Italian). 2021-07-21. Retrieved 2023-08-03.