The 2025 Special Olympics World Winter Games, officially known as the XII Special Olympics World Winter Games. and commonly known as Turin 2025 (), were an international multi-sport event. It was the 12th Special Olympics World Winter Games. 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.
Host selection 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 , president of Special Olympics Italy. 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.
On 16 July 2021, Turin was awarded the World Games by Special Olympics International. 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.
Representatives Second lady of the USA Usha Vance led the United States presidential delegation to the games.
The Games Venues The following venues were used:
Turin Inalpi Arena - opening ceremony, floorball Palasport Tazzoli - figure skating, short track speed skating
Mountains Melezet, Bardonecchia - snowboarding Palazzo delle Feste, Bardonecchia - dancesport Pragelato Plan - cross-country skiing Via Lattea, Sestriere - closing ceremony, alpine skiing, snowshoeing
Sports The following eight sports were held:
Calendar
All times and dates use Central European Time (UTC+01:00) OCOpening ceremony●Event competitions1Gold medal eventsCCClosing ceremony
March 2025MarchEvents8thSat9thSun10thMon11thTue12thWed13thThu14thFri15thSat CeremoniesOCCC Alpine skiing
|bgcolor=#3399ff|● |bgcolor="#ffcc00;"|27 |bgcolor="#ffcc00;"|32 |bgcolor=#3399ff|● |bgcolor="#ffcc00;"|42101 Cross-country skiing
|bgcolor=#3399ff|● |bgcolor=#3399ff|● |bgcolor="#ffcc00;"|21 |bgcolor="#ffcc00;"|30 |bgcolor="#ffcc00;"|32 |bgcolor="#ffcc00;"|17100 Dancesport
|bgcolor=#3399ff|● |bgcolor=#3399ff|● |bgcolor="#ffcc00;"|12 |bgcolor="#ffcc00;"|9 |21 Figure skating
|bgcolor="#ffcc00;"|6 |bgcolor="#ffcc00;"|9 |bgcolor="#ffcc00;"|5 |20 Floorball
|bgcolor=#3399ff|● |bgcolor=#3399ff|● |bgcolor=#3399ff|● |bgcolor="#ffcc00;"|11 |bgcolor="#ffcc00;"|314 Short track speed skating
|bgcolor=#3399ff|● |bgcolor=#3399ff|● |bgcolor="#ffcc00;"|30 |bgcolor="#ffcc00;"|30 |60 Snowboarding
|bgcolor="#ffcc00;"|16 |bgcolor="#ffcc00;"|9 |bgcolor="#ffcc00;"|8 |bgcolor="#ffcc00;"|3 |36 Snowshoeing
|bgcolor=#3399ff|● |bgcolor=#3399ff|● |bgcolor="#ffcc00;"|46 |bgcolor="#ffcc00;"|35 |bgcolor="#ffcc00;"|22103Daily medal events 16 63 167 125 84 455Cumulative total 16 79 246 371 455March 20258thSat9thSun10thMon11thTue12thWed13thThu14thFri15thSatTotal eventsMarch
Medal table 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.
Notable Achievements Gerhard Kirnbauer (Austria), aged 66, made history as the oldest competitor at the Special Olympics World Winter Games Turin 2025, participating in snowshoeing events. Kirnbauer represented Special Olympics Austria in the 100m and 200m races.
Marketing
The application ran under the slogan The Future is Here.
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.
External links
Logo and Motto from the 2025 Winter Special Olympics World Games
References