Healthy Hearing at 2025 Summer Games

Amid the cheers, high-fives, and medal moments at our 2025 Summer Games, we offered three Healthy Athletes screenings — Special Smiles®, Opening Eyes, and Healthy Hearing!

This year, 78 athletes received Healthy Hearing screenings during the Games. Healthy Hearing provides free hearing screenings to Special Olympics athletes and helps identify hearing loss that may otherwise go undetected. The program also offers education and resources, and when necessary, referrals for follow-up care and hearing aids.

These screenings were made possible thanks to the generous support of audiology professionals who volunteered their time and expertise. Their compassion and skill ensured that each athlete felt safe, respected, and well cared for throughout the process.

Hearing is vital—not just for competition, but for connection. By supporting athlete hearing health, we help improve communication, confidence, and quality of life, both on and off the field. But these screenings are also vital to making healthcare more inclusive. By providing professionals with experience working with individuals with IDD, they are able to take what they have learned and apply it to their own practice and help their colleagues provide accessible and inclusive care.

To everyone who made this screening possible: thank you for helping us bring attention to an often-overlooked area of health.

#InclusiveHealth