Arnold Schwarzenegger once took on a job with a far smaller spotlight than Hollywood: coaching weightlifters with intellectual disabilities. In 1979 he was named the Special Olympics International Weight Training Coach, according to his official biography at the California State Library. Nearly five decades later, the link between the Schwarzenegger name and the movement is still running, now into a second and third generation.
How the bodybuilder got the job
Special Olympics was founded in 1968 by Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the mother of Maria Shriver, whom Schwarzenegger married in 1986. The idea grew out of Camp Shriver, a summer day camp for people with intellectual disabilities that Eunice started on her Maryland farm in 1962. By the late 1970s the games were drawing big crowds and famous backers; the organization’s own history pages point to boxing great Muhammad Ali as a longtime supporter from that era.
Schwarzenegger, who had won the Mr. Universe title at 20 and a string of world bodybuilding titles after moving to the United States, brought the one thing he knew better than almost anyone alive: how to train for strength. The state library biography says he later moved up to the role of Special Olympics Global Ambassador.
In a tribute letter now posted on the Special Olympics site, he described Shriver as both “a terrific mother-in-law” and “an inspirational role model.” He wrote that her example “constantly inspires me to follow in her footsteps and serve, serve, serve.”
The big public moments
The Special Olympics timeline of the 2000s puts Schwarzenegger at two of the movement’s largest international pushes:
- May 2000, China: He joined athletes to light the Flame of Hope on the Great Wall, opening the Special Olympics China Millennium March. China pledged to grow its athlete numbers from 50,000 to 500,000 by 2005.
- July 2001, South Africa: He stood with Nelson Mandela and Special Olympics athletes to light the flame for Special Olympics African Hope, across Cape Town, Johannesburg and Sun City. The event kicked off what the organization calls its largest Law Enforcement Torch Run, through the streets of Cape Town, and a drive to sign up 100,000 new athletes in Africa by 2005.
Those were not small shows. The same timeline says Shanghai went on to host the 2007 World Summer Games with more than 7,500 athletes from 164 countries, the biggest turnout up to then.
A family business of a different kind
The connection did not stop with him. In October 2021, Special Olympics named his daughter, author Katherine Schwarzenegger, and her husband Chris Pratt as Global Ambassadors for a two-year term focused on Unified Sports and inclusive school programs.
“Special Olympics has always been a huge part of my life,” Katherine said in the announcement, recalling childhood trips to events and summers as a counselor at Camp Shriver with her cousins, the same camp where her grandmother’s idea started.
His son Christopher Schwarzenegger joined the Special Olympics Founder’s Council in 2024 and is listed as its vice chair. His leadership page says he wants to use what he learned working for a sports psychologist to help the millions of athletes who compete each year.
A timeline of the Schwarzenegger years
Put together, the record from the organization and the state library gives a clear timeline of a 45-year connection:
- 1968: Eunice Kennedy Shriver founds Special Olympics.
- 1979: Schwarzenegger is named International Weight Training Coach.
- 2000: He lights the Flame of Hope on the Great Wall of China.
- 2001: He joins Nelson Mandela in South Africa for African Hope.
- 2021: Katherine Schwarzenegger and Chris Pratt become Global Ambassadors.
- 2024: Christopher Schwarzenegger joins the Founder’s Council.
The movement now reports upward of six million participants, counting athletes and their Unified Sports teammates, across more than 190 countries and territories, with over 100,000 competitions staged every year. For a man best known for lifting enormous weights on camera, the quieter job he took in 1979 may be the one with the longest reach.
Further reading
Image: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by our Editorial Desk. How we work.
