Special Olympics is set to launch a pilot programme for gathering real-time statistics during its international competitions ©Special Olympics

Special Olympics is set to launch a pilot programme for gathering real-time statistics during international competition.

The International Floorball Federation (IFF), in partnership with Special Olympics, will employ software-producing statistics during Special Olympics' competitions at the upcoming Sweden Invitational Games, due to take place in Åre and Östersund from February 1 to 4.

For Special Olympics, it is claimed this cultural shift will provide quantifiable metrics to evaluate individual athlete performance, and ensure quality control and competitive balance among athletes within a sport.

It is hoped it will also deliver real-time data results to media and influencers, and quantify competitions to enhance the credibility of Special Olympics, the world's largest sports organisation for children and adults with intellectual disabilities and physical disabilities.

"I think this is where we can tell better storylines that you might see in any other mainstream sport events and build celebrities out of our athletes with those storylines," Jon-Paul St Germain, senior director for Special Olympics Sport, told insidethegames.

"It also allows us to tell a more compelling story about the journey to the competition.

"As we know, for athletes, especially in team sports, a big motivating factor in terms of competition is to be able to judge how well you performed and if you have more statistics to show particular performances, rather than just focus on whether the team won or lost, you're able to gauge or motivate yourself into doing more training.

"That's really a story we want to tell.

"We have a lot of dedicated athletes who are really trying their best and that's a story that we want to tell regardless of any ability level and we think that's what's compelling to a lot of people - a Special Olympics athlete in terms of their ability level may not be a professional, but their effort is what is inspiring and their courage to try to do their best.

"So, again, the statistics give depth to that story and so we think that can be a really helpful tool for us in terms of what our mission is, which is really using sport to positively change attitudes towards people with intellectual disabilities, talking about their gifts and talents."

This pilot will serve as a role model for gathering statistics for additional Special Olympics international competitions.

"We're hoping to use this pilot as a means to then build other partnerships with other International Sport Federations and do something similar," St Germain added.

"We’re looking at perhaps rolling it out in basketball, working with our partners in the Badminton World Federation as well, building more stat packages on our competition and then for our next World Games which will be in Berlin in 2023."

The IFF already has its own statistics system and has been using that for several years to deliver live numbers to the international floorball community. 

Floorball experts input all the data manually through a website, recording goals, shots on goal, saves, assists and penalties. 

As part of its partnership with the Special Olympics, the IFF will also post Special Olympics floorball results and news on its own website to help increase awareness of the organisation's athletes.

"There is a more deep, so to say, analysis possible to be made which is based on the fact that with a statistical system like this, you can then start looking upon in which direction do we want to change the game, in which direction will we want to bring the game," John Liljelund, secretary general of the IFF, told insidethegames.

"[We can] also see, for example, the effect of what kind of coaches, what kind of players do we have, where are their strengths, where are their weaknesses."

The Invitational Games provides a Local Organising Committee (LOC) to test all relevant systems and confirm it is ready for the following year's World Winter Games.

The 2021 World Winter Games were scheduled to be staged in Sweden, but last month it was announced that would no longer be the case as the LOC has not been able to secure sufficient funds for the event.