Bases loaded, a gold medal on the line. Manuel Velasco Jr. stands in the batter's box sniffling, tears streaming down his face.
Seconds earlier, the 19-year-old known as Junior was behind the dugout, his coach imploring him to shake off a hard collision at third base in the top half of the inning. Junior was about to miss his turn at the plate.
Once in the box, he quickly falls behind two strikes. A wipe of the face and a swipe of the bat, he hits a ball the third baseman can't handle. Junior reaches first base just as the winning run crosses the plate. Coaches and players swarm, family and friends cheer.
Junior's clutch hit in the face of adversity came at the Arizona state softball tournament last summer. Inspirational stories like his have played out in nearly every corner of the world during the 50 years of Special Olympics.
"Every person has a story to tell and most people wish the world would pay attention to them. In our community, the stories have a particular hue," Special Olympics chairman Tim Shriver said.
"They almost always start in sadness and shock, they almost always follow a path of humiliation and discrimination, and they almost always have a moment or a series of moments where all the humiliation, all the shock and sadness are transformed into meaning, purpose and joy. That story in some ways is common in all people, but in our community, people just tell it with more authenticity and rawness and punch." Shriver's mother, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, made it so these stories were heard.
The sister of President John F. Kennedy helped change perceptions of people with intellectual disabilities and, in turn, carved out a better future for them. Her sister, Rosemary, had an intellectual disability, and Kennedy Shriver wanted a better life and opportunities for children who, in the 1950s and 1960s, were often bullied, isolated by their parents or institutionalized.
Kennedy Shriver forged the groundwork for the first Special Olympics at Chicago's Soldier Field in 1968 with Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke, then a volunteer with the Chicago Parks Department.
Special Olympics has since branched out to 172 countries and 4.9 million athletes competing in a range of sports from soccer to snowboarding while spreading a global message of inclusion and empowerment. The organization's 50th anniversary is being celebrated during a five-day event in Chicago this week.
"Anything that lasts this long and is continuing to grow is tapping into something that's profoundly human, that's shared across cultures and time periods, that doesn't expire," Shriver said.
"The energy that the Special Olympics athletes unleash is an energy of compassion and trust, an energy of putting relationships above possessions or power or notoriety. It's the lesson that every human being has a gift and I don't think that lesson gets old."
"It doesn't put her a step down, it puts her a step above because she thinks she can do anything and be better than anybody because of Special Olympics."
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