[SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO - 10 APRIL 2025] Special Olympics International (SOI) announced today that San Juan, Puerto Rico, will be the host site for the very first Special Olympics Unified 3x3 Basketball World Cup, marking the first time in the 56-year history of the global sporting movement that a Unified 3x3 Basketball World Cup will take place. Modeled after the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) World Cup™, this historic event, held from 5 – 7 December will bring together 20 men’s teams and 20 women’s teams comprised of Special Olympics basketball players and Unified partners (teammates without intellectual disabilities) representing each Special Olympics region around the world.
In less than nine months, San Juan will welcome 200 Special Olympics basketball players with and without intellectual disabilities (ID) from nearly 40 countries to compete over three days of intense competition at the famed T-Mobile District, home to FIBA’s 3x3 AmeriCup. The event will feature 250 special guests, including players’ family members, prominent sports figures, government and community leaders, and Special Olympics ambassadors, as well as more than 100 coaches and officials, and 800 spectators who support the mission of inclusion through sport.
Earlier this afternoon at a press event at the Casa Alcaldía del Municipio de San Juan, Puerto Rico, it was announced that Puerto Rico will host the first-ever Special Olympics Unified 3x3 Basketball World Cup and the official logo was unveiled. Presiding over the announcement included Miguel A. Romero Lugo, the Mayor of San Juan; Héctor Vázquez Muñiz, Sports and Recreation Department Secretary of Puerto Rico; Lou Lauria, Chief of Sport and Competition of SOI; Arnaldo Pérez, President of Special Olympics Puerto Rico and Claudia Echeverry, Regional Director and President of Special Olympics Latin America.
“We could not be more excited to bring our inaugural Special Olympics Unified 3x3 Basketball World Cup to San Juan. Within Special Olympics, 3x3 is experiencing rapid growth, and this event is part of a larger strategy to increase participation in 3x3 basketball across the Special Olympics movement and provide more quality competition opportunities to the athletes and their Unified partners.”
Unified 3x3 basketball was launched by Special Olympics in 2017 in collaboration with the FIBA Foundation, when Special Olympics teams were invited to participate in the FIBA Open in Mies, Switzerland. In 2020, the rules for Unified 3x3 basketball were approved and published in the official Special Olympics Sports Rules. In June 2023, Unified 3x3 Basketball made its first appearance as an official competition at the 2023 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Berlin, Germany.
For the past five years, FIBA has hosted the 3x3 AmeriCup in Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico is a fast-growing hub of 3x3 basketball, and an ideal location to showcase the power of Special Olympics Unified Sports®. Unified Sports brings together athletes with and without ID to compete on the same team, showing how shared play breaks down barriers and fosters communities of acceptance and inclusion. Globally, more than 368,000 Special Olympics basketball players with and without ID train and compete in basketball through 179 Special Olympics local Programs.
FIBA Foundation President Hamane Niang said, “FIBA and its Foundation is proud to have been part of the journey leading to the inaugural Special Olympics Unified 3x3 Basketball World Cup. This is yet another example of using our sport as a tool for inclusion and aligned with our continuously increasing global community of Basketball For Good activities.”
Selections for all participating teams will be determined by SOI on 15 August. Following team selection, a draw ceremony will be held in September to determine the matchups for the first round of play.
“We previously held a Special Olympics World Swimming Championship in San Juan in 2012, and this new challenge of the 3x3 World Cup will open the doors for the support of the people and the world in general. This event will be wonderful for our country and for our local program. We will grow with the celebration of this Unified 3x3 Basketball World Cup. People will support it; Holding an event like this will greatly help us promote inclusion for people with intellectual disabilities.”
For more information on the 2025 Special Olympics 3x3 Unified Basketball World Cup, visit www.specialolympics.org.