{"id":55769,"date":"2025-11-19T06:04:19","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T06:04:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/55769\/"},"modified":"2025-11-19T06:04:19","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T06:04:19","slug":"special-olympics-texas-to-host-2026-winter-games-in-lakeway-bee-cave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/55769\/","title":{"rendered":"Special Olympics Texas to host 2026 Winter Games in Lakeway, Bee Cave"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe Special Olympics Texas<\/a> 2026 Winter Games will take place Feb. 13-15 in host cities Lakeway and Bee Cave.<\/p>\n

The specifics<\/p>\n

At a press conference held Nov. 18, various speakers presented about the upcoming Winter Games and its impact across the local community, including:<\/p>\n

Rodrick Walker, NFL Austin Chapter player and community relations coordinatorCEO of Special Olympics Texas Tim MartinLakeway Mayor Tom KilgoreBee Cave Mayor Kara KingLakeway Chief of Police Glen KoenWilliam Pitmon, Bee Cave interim chief of policeCEO of Professional Contract Services Tony CucoloMini Garrett, special needs trust services and senior lead fiduciary advisory specialistSpecial Olympics Texas athlete Nick RodriguezThe Winter Games will feature powerlifting, volleyball, floorball, golf and FUNdamental sports, such as bowling and cheer.<\/p>\n

Martin explained how the FUNdamental sports differ from other participation categories.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor our most profoundly challenged athletes, they’ll travel with doctors,\u201d Martin said. \u201cThe medical staff will close their clinics and come with those athletes so they have a chance to be on the road. It\u2019s one of the most powerful moments you’ll see. I encourage you to go and see FUNdamentals when they come to town.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year, the opening ceremonies will take place at Lake Travis High School featuring a performance by Kelley Jakle.<\/p>\n

Kilgore stated this will be the fifth year the city of Lakeway will sponsor Special Olympics Texas.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this point the city of Lakeway has now sponsored the Special Olympics to the tune of $1.24 million,\u201d Kilgore said. \u201cSpecial Olympics is the largest recipient of our hotel tax funds in order to keep the games here, to sponsor the athletes and to help offset costs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ParticipantsParticipants can compete in various activities including volleyball, floorball, powerlifting, golf and FUNdamental sports. (Dacia Garcia\/Community Impact)Alongside Lakeway and additional organizations, the city of Bee Cave is also sponsoring the games.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200b\u200bSpecial Olympics creates an inclusive space that celebrates competition, joy and respect where athletes can thrive and all of us can learn to be better humans,\u201d King said. \u201cAt its heart, Special Olympics isn’t just about competition. It’s about showing the world what’s possible when people are given the chance to rise.\u201d<\/p>\n

What else?<\/p>\n

Power lifter Rodriguez shared that his team has been invited to participate in the 2026 U.S. Games taking place in June.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo years ago my grandma passed away; I promised that I would make the USA team, and this year I proudly can say I made it to the team,\u201d Rodriguez said.<\/p>\n

The 2026 U.S. Games<\/a> will take place in Minnesota from June 20-26.<\/p>\n

Feb. 13-15Lake Travis High School, 3324 S. RM 620, Austin (opening ceremony), specific event venues varywww.sotx.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Special Olympics Texas 2026 Winter Games will take place Feb. 13-15 in host cities Lakeway and Bee…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55770,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,7600,5835,30461,10708,27219,30460,30454,30455,30458,30456,30459,30457],"class_list":["post-55769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-bee-cave","tag-bee-cave-events","tag-bee-cave-news","tag-lakeway","tag-lakeway-events","tag-lakeway-news","tag-special-olympics","tag-special-olympics-texas","tag-special-olympics-texas-2026","tag-special-olympics-texas-winter-games","tag-special-olympics-texas-winter-games-2026","tag-special-olympics-winter-games"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}