Case Study: Special Olympics USA Games saves $200,000 and streamlines event management with Smartsheet

Special Olympics saves $200,000 and manages 5,500 athletes with Smartsheet

Special Olympics, the world's largest sports organization for people with intellectual disabilities, faced a significant challenge in planning the complex 2022 USA Games. Without a unified system, the organization relied on scattered emails and spreadsheets, making it difficult to coordinate hundreds of events for over 5,500 athletes and coaches across 11 venues. To gain visibility and streamline planning, they turned to the Smartsheet platform.

Using Smartsheet, the team created a central hub for project management, built public portals for delegation heads, and developed real-time operational dashboards. They utilized Smartsheet DataMesh to manage equipment lists and integrated the platform with a fan engagement app. This solution provided a single source of truth, saving an estimated $200,000 by avoiding additional hires and dramatically reducing the time to find critical information. Smartsheet enabled efficient collaboration and set a foundation for smoothly transitioning to the 2026 Games.

Special Olympics