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Special Olympics is the world’s largest sports organization for children and adults with intellectual disabilities. It was established to provide year-round sports training and competition opportunities in a variety of Olympic-type sports. Nowadays, it is a global movement of devoted people gathered to create a new world of inclusion where every single person is accepted and welcomed, regardless of ability or disability. In Bulgaria, the Special Olympics program started in 1994 and since then is constantly advocating for access to sports for the disadvantaged groups in our society. The aim of this study is to reveal the power of sport in the transformation of the lives of persons with intellectual disabilities involved in the Special Olympics program in Bulgaria. Single-case research design was applied for examining changes in outcome variables in a researched target group. For the truly recapture of the researched individuals, we made use of narrative in terms of “live stories”. The grounded theory of this study is empowerment, as defined by the United Nations Social Development Network. The transformative power of sports has a positive influence on personal and sport-specific competencies, relatedness, expansion of opportunities, and autonomy. Involvement in Special Olympics contributes to personal development and inspires a sense of belonging. Training and competition involvement are increasing opportunities and experiences that lead to the empowerment of a single person with an intellectual disability.

Engaging in sports activities certainly possesses multiple facets. Notwithstanding the apparent health dimension, doing sports is a pertinent social activity, and is of particular importance for the young population, including students. Te main aim of this paper is to present the key contours of sports performance of the student population in Zagreb. The focus is on the examination of the following three aspects: self- estimation of (non)obtained sport skills and capabilities, attributes of health condition and attitudes towards sports as a social activity. The empirical analysis is based on survey data gathered in February 2016 on a non-probable occasional sample (N= 2400) that comprised attendants of mandatory physical education courses at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (of the University of Zagreb) and the Faculty of Science (of the University of Zagreb). The diversity of felds of study allows for interesting comparisons among students of different study groups. Despite certain slight differences, preliminary findings indicate quite a poor general engagement in sports activities and a relatively weak level of attained abilities. At the same time, sport is considered as a valuable activity in itself, which also contains the important social dimension of nurturing friendship and connecting with other people. In conclusion, the necessity for the systematic organization of sports activities and their more intensive incorporation in the academic environment, school system and at different societal levels, is emphasized. Besides, the need of sensitizing students, the young population and overall public about the importance of doing a sport, recreation and physical activity, also of pursuing a healthy life-style, is underlined. The urgency of multidisciplinary scientifc inquiry of sport is highlighted, as well.

In the field of physical and health education goals and tasks are realized by numerous forms of organization of work in the basic and differentiated program. School period of physical and health education is the basic organizational form of work but also the foundation for introducing pupils to other organizational forms of work, whether it's about extracurricular or out of school activities. In this paper comparative analysis is used in comparing subject curricula of physical and health education in several European countries. Comparison is primarily related to the organizational forms of work, as well as program content used in teaching physical and health education and duration of a school period. All analyzed countries as a constant feature a school period of physical and health education in their curricula. Minimal differences appear in the defining other organizational forms of work. Also minor differences appear in the program contents. The biggest difference is reflected in the annual fund of compulsory school periods of physical and health education. These differences are consequence of unevenness of the weekly workload of teaching physical and health education in most European countries. It was noted that some countries prefer out of school compared to extracurricular activities, which leads to different conclusions, but they are almost certain indicator of unpreparedness of the educational system to meet the needs of pupils.