On the 194th episode of “Listen In With KNN” sports talk radio/podcast show presented by FOX Sports Radio 1340AM/96.9 FM, executive producer and host Kelsey Nicole Nelson welcomed two very special guests to discuss how the Special Olympics and Microsoft are teaming up to host the inaugural Gaming for Inclusion experience. 

Joining Nelson this week is Prianka Nandy, the Chief Information Officer for Special Olympics, and Marcie Nymark, Director of Brand Partnerships at Microsoft. The three spoke about the partnership between both organizations and how this fantastic week-long tournament came to be.

The virtual multi-day, multi-game esports tournament Gaming for Inclusion has been taking place all week long (September 12-18, 2021) and concluded yesterday with the Celebrity Showcase where the winners of the bracket-style tournaments will compete with professional athletes like NBA All-Star Jayson Tatum, WWE superstar Ember Moon, WNBA star Jewell Lloyd, and former NFL player and two-time first-team All-Pro running back Jamaal Charles. 

“We’ve had a strong partnership in the making with Microsoft for seven years and over that time we’ve really worked together to look at a lot of the ways we can engage our organization, our athletes, our participants, volunteers, all the great people out there that support the movement,” said Nandy on the importance of this continued partnership with Special Olympics.

Microsoft and Special Olympics have been working hand in hand to engage and connect people of all abilities from around the world. “This is just the start of a great example of our partnership…for Microsoft, our goal for partners like Special Olympics is to empower their mission, and this one is just so beautifully able to bring our unique skills together,” said Nymark.

The inaugural Gaming for Inclusion esports experience showcases the power of inclusion through sport. Nymark continued on to say, “We are so excited to see where this leads with Special Olympics…There is just so much power in bringing the use of technology together with sport to connect people in different ways and how we do work together to make the world a more inclusive place.”

Both organizations have been working towards hosting events like Gaming for Inclusion since 2018. “We started thinking about Esports back in 2018 with an Xbox gaming tournament at the 2018 Special Olympics USA Games…the popularity was already there. Gaming was already part of our ecosystem of the athletes we already have,” said Nandy.

The Gaming for Inclusion experience is the next evolution of the award-winning Xbox Virtual Gaming Event hosted in May 2020. “Looking at gaming was the perfect way to start to think about how are we engaging these digital technologies, especially in the age of COVID?,” said Nandy.

Nelson asked Nandy about how the Special Olympics continues to strive to bring inclusion to all places in society. Nandy replied, “We’ve been thinking about inclusion from day one. We’re a grassroots movement. We’ve been thinking about the ways our athletes and people with intellectual, developmental disabilities have been marginalized for a very long time.”

 “…to think about how we can bring together people with ID and without ID together. To start changing mindsets—to focus on how and what can our athletes do, not what they can’t do and how can we use sports, the joy of playing—to do that,” said Nandy.

The Gaming for Inclusion experience will have bracket-style tournaments that feature Rocket League, Forza Motorsport 7, and Madden 2022. The competitions will be streamed on the Xbox Twitch Channel and Special Olympics YouTube Channel.

“I think we’re in for fun and real competition,” said Nymark. Nandy agreed with Nymark and added, “We have [92] athletes registered now in various regions around the world so us being able to have athletes from different countries…that’s so exciting to me.” That number is three times the amount of participants they had in 2020 events.

“Our commitment really is to continue to build inclusive mindsets in every facet of society that we are a part of…play and gaming is for everyone and it can be an inclusive environment as well,” said Nandy.

To hear more about Special Olympics and Microsoft’s alliance, listen to the episode below. Stay tuned to all the action and future events on specialolympics.org and on @specialolympics on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and their Bing Page!