Healthy Athletes and Home Runs: Bringing Health and Sports Together at SONA Softball Championship

Imagine you’re an athlete ready to compete at the highest level, but you’re distracted by a throbbing mouth from toothache. Or try running around the track with shoes that aren’t the right size for you. Or maybe you’re at home plate ready to hit the softball, but you can’t see because you need new glasses. Suddenly, all the hours of practice you put in don’t matter anymore because your health is keeping you from competing at your best.

Unfortunately, for many Special Olympics athletes, this isn’t just an imaginary scenario; it happens regularly.

At the entrance to Devon Park, a table is spotlighted Special Olympics Healthy athletes® and encouraging the athletes who participate in the 2025 Special Olympics North American Softball Championship to be screened. Just behind the first base concourse are a handful of tents housing medical professionals and students. Athletes from across the United States and Canada participated in a variety of health disciplines, including Strong Minds and Special Smiles.

After the athletes had completed their rounds, they could choose from a range of prizes. On the second day of the tournament, a banner hung at the entrance to the stadium that read: ‘I am a healthy athlete.’ People were encouraged to sign it.

The choice to make Healthy Athletes a prominent part of the event sent a powerful message to all attendees: health, both mental and physical, is a crucial part of competing on the playing field.

Healthy Athletes was introduced in 1997 when the organization began offering free health screenings and education to Special Olympics athletes. Since then, more than two million free health screenings have been conducted, and more and more health professionals are learning how to treat those who do intellectual disability.

The Special Olympic Games North America Championships, organized in golf, tennispickle and softballare regional competitions that bring together athletes from Canada, the Caribbean and the United States. In addition to providing advanced competition opportunities, SONA Championships also provide a valuable opportunity to reinforce important health messages to athletes.

Amanda Webb is the Clinical Director of Strong Minds for Oklahoma Special Olympicsand in her role she teaches athletes emotional wellness techniques, including at the 2025 SONA Softball Championship. “They have tools to stay calm, manage their nerves during competition and to help their daily lives,” Webb said of the work she does. “We have six different stations where we put them [athletes] through where we will learn how to manage stress, the importance of partnership, the importance of using powerful messages and we will do some breathing techniques, stretching and relaxation techniques.

Mental wellness is such an essential part of the sport, and the opportunity to learn these techniques on-site during a softball tournament was crucial. Softball is a fast, high-energy sport, and it’s important to get the message across that being in shape and doing the things you need to do to compete at that high level is part of being an athlete.

Talon Rodriguez, the health and wellness coordinator for Special Olympics Oklahoma, says the program focuses heavily on fitness and wellness programs, creating a variety of fitness challenges.

“A lot of traditional athletes that you see in high school sports, college sports, professional sports, fitness, wellness and nutrition are ingrained from a young age, and it’s kind of second nature, but that’s not necessarily the case for everyone,” Rodriguez said. “Athlete or Unified partner, many people don’t grow up with the support system that really drives home the importance of overall wellness and health.”

Special Olympics often fills this gap, providing athletes with valuable health education materials and preventative screenings. But going forward, the hope is that there will no longer be a gap to fill, and that healthcare systems will adequately support people with intellectual disabilities.

“Health should just be health; we shouldn’t have inclusive health care,” Rodriguez emphasized.