MOSCOW, December 5 (R-Sport) – It has hosted the Summer Olympics and is weeks away from staging the Winter Olympics. Now Russia could bid to hold the Special Olympics.
President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that Russia could seek to host the multi-sports event for people with intellectual disabilities. The Special Olympics World Games have been staged every two years since 1968, mostly in the United States.
The closest the event has been to Russia is Austria in 1993. Putin told a meeting of the pro-presidential All Russian People’s Front: “Of course, the Special Olympic Games may be organized in Russia.
“We have everything necessary for that. And we will discuss it with my colleagues who are dealing with it at the international level.”
Russia will host its first Paralympic Games in March, for athletes with physical disabilities, a month after the Winter Olympics are held in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
The first available Special Olympics that Russia could bid for will take place in 2021. The contest will be staged next in the US city of Los Angeles in 2015, then move to Austria in 2017.
The bidding process for 2019 has already closed, with Australia, Germany and South Africa competing for the event.
The Soviet Union staged the Summer Games in Moscow in 1980. One of Putin's objectives in his third term as president is to restore Russia's sporting pedigree, which was lost with the Soviet collapse in 1991.
