Special Olympics 2015: World Games Dates, Events, Preview and More

Thousands of athletes from 177 countries have descended upon Los Angeles for the 2015 Special Olympics World Games, which is set to begin Saturday.

The Special Olympics celebrates the athleticism of those with intellectual disabilities, with roots dating all the way back to 1968. It has been a while since the World Summer Games took place on American soil. In 1999, Raleigh, North Carolina, played host to the competition.

According to CBS News' Mark Knoller, the World Games will have a notable guest in attendance when the action commences tomorrow:

Twenty-six different events, almost all of which have their own separate disciplines, will take place in Los Angeles throughout the next week. A full schedule is available on the Special Olympics' official site. You can find the list of events and when they kick off below:

Event	Start Date
Aquatics	Saturday, July 25
Athletics	Saturday, July 25
Badminton	Sunday, July 26
Basketball	Saturday, July 25
Beach Volleyball	Sunday, July 26
Bocce	Saturday, July 25
Bowling	Sunday, July 26
Cycling	Monday, July 27
Equestrian	Tuesday, July 28
Football (Soccer)	Saturday, July 25
Golf	Monday, July 27
Gymnastics (Artistic)	Thursday, July 30
Gymnastics (Rhythmic)	Sunday, July 26
Half Marathon	Saturday, August 1
Handball	Sunday, July 26
Judo	Tuesday, July 28
Kayaking	Tuesday, July 28
Open Water Swimming	Sunday, July 26
Powerlifting	Monday, July 27
Roller Skating	Sunday, July 26
Sailing	Monday, July 27
Softball	Sunday, July 26
Table Tennis	Sunday, July 26
Tennis	Saturday, July 25
Triathlon	Sunday, July 26
Volleyball	Sunday, July 26

For those taking part in the celebration, the World Games are the culmination of years of hard work.

"This is the dream of a lifetime for me," said Dana Griesinger, a softball coach who will lend a hand for the World Games, per the Guardian's Mary O'Hara. "My goal for this trip is that [my athletes] play to their potential. They work so hard. I've seen their excitement grow. I've seen their skills improve. It's been a great journey."

The structure of the World Games might look a little unexpected for viewers at home. Given that each athlete has an intellectual disability—the severity of which can differ from athlete to athlete—it can be somewhat difficult to ensure the competitors in a given event are on a relatively level playing field.

That's where "divisioning" comes in. ESPN.com's Andy Kamenetzky wrote an in-depth piece about the tactic and its implementation in the World Games. According to Kamenetzky, the event organizers want at most a 15 percent difference between the best and worst athletes in each group.

Lee Todd, the chief of World Games and competition, explained pairing up similar athletes can be particularly tricky when dealing with athletes who have intellectual disabilities:

"

You know if a person is either in a wheelchair, they're blind, if they have an amputation above the knee or below the knee. There's a clear-cut definition of a disability. Whereas in Special Olympics, you really can't classify. ... Because you can't really classify by the disability, we have to classify by performance. All the athletes that are running in a preliminary 100-meter dash, and they may go anywhere from 12 to 13 seconds on up to 50 seconds, and they're ranked. And then you use the 15 percent-or-less percentage. That puts athletes of equal ability level together competing so they get great competition and, we always hope, a fair competition.

"

Blowouts aren't fun in any sporting event. They aren't fun to watch for the spectators, and they quickly stop being enjoyable for the athletes as well. "Divisioning" will ensure those sort of one-sided contests don't happen in the World Games, which is a win-win for everybody involved.

The end of July is a bit of a dead time for American sports. The MLB season is obviously well underway, but the NFL and college football are still months away from getting interesting. The NBA won't start until the fall.

The ESPN family of networks, including Watch ESPN, will carry coverage of the World Games from start to finish. For fans hoping for a sports fix between now and the start of August, the World Games could certainly help fill that void.