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Dallas Avila is a graduating senior at Rice High School who competed at the State Special Olympics in San Antonio Texas on May 19 and 20, 2023 at the Hero’s Stadium. He competed in the 200-meter dash and received a silver medal. He also competed in the running long jump event, receiving a bronze medal for his efforts. This is his fifth year participating in the Special Olympics, but just his first time competing at a state level in Track & Field events. He is the first Rice student to compete at the state level in the Special Olympics.
The Special Olympics has over 50 years of history with athletes of different types of disabilities taking part and competing at a high level. Since the first official event in Chicago in 1968, the inclusion efforts of the Special Olympics have spread across the US, Canada and France as special needs students and adults experience the competitive spirit of an organized meet. After 20 years of hosting and sponsoring events for these competitions, the International Olympic Committee in Paris officially recognized the Special Olympics as an official branch of international Olympic competition.
The first-ever Special Olympics event in Texas was hosted by Waco with over 350 athletes meeting in the summer of 1969 to compete in the 10-event competition. Since then, the movement has grown in size and spread throughout the state with competitions being hosted in major cities like Austin, San Antonio, Houston and Dallas. The influence of the Special Olympics has grown in a major way since their initial days in Waco as the Texas committee registered a record of over 55 thousand special athletes in 2015 to mark their highest number of registrations in Texas Special Olympics history.
