Brave in the Attempt

The oath that athletes take at the Special Olympics is “Let me win. But if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt.” This ethos has come to embody the movement started by the late Eunice Kennedy Shriver in 1962 with a summer camp in her Maryland backyard. Now, the Special Olympics is made up of more than 4.5 million athletes from all parts of the globe. Fritz Mitchell’s exploration into Shriver’s mission and relentless drive shows how this world-changing social-action initiative was born.