With its concept and special rules Special Olympics enables athletes of all levels to participate in competitions. The competitions are structured in a way that athletes are able to compete in a homogeneous performance group with athletes with comparable levels of performance.

These groups always include at least three and a maximum of eight athletes. The final competition is carried out on the basis of the results of the pre-competition.

The international set of rules of Special Olympics is valid for all the disciplines. For national competitions no qualifications or limits have to be provided. In order to be nominated for the participation in World Games, one has to have taken part in national respectively regional events.