FAIRHOPE, Ala. — The Special Olympics around the coast of Alabama has included many sports from swimming to basketball to bowling. However, it is fairly new to sailing, a sport limited to certain parts of the country, including the Gulf Coast.

The Fairhope Yacht Club is sponsoring a program that will add sailing for the people in the area who want to get involved in the Special Olympics.

“This area is the sailing Mecca,” said Daryl Haskew, 61, one of the coaches. “There is no reason we cannot increase the interest in sailing in the area.”

The program is going to train anybody who wants to get involved in Special Olympics to sail along Mobile Bay. Then, from June 24-27, participants will be able to compete in the Special Olympics sailing contest in Ocean Springs, Miss. Last year, five states were involved; 62 teams participated.

Over the last 15 years, sailing has become an increasingly popular sport in Special Olympics. Georgia and Mississippi already added it, and states on the upper East Coast such as Rhode Island have taken part in it as well. Alabama has gotten increasingly involved over the last eight years.

“After seeing how sailing developed in other states, we decided that Alabama should do some sailing, too,” Haskew said. “We may have an opportunity to bring the Special Olympics to Mobile Bay eventually.”

Alabama Special Olympic teams have gotten involved in many competitions since then, including competing in the European Special Olympics held in the Netherlands.

The teams all have at least one athlete and one coach. There are different levels of competition as well. Levels one and two consist of one athlete and one coach on the sailboat. However, level three has two athletes on the boat and one coach. Level four consists of one athlete on the boat and one coach.

“We are looking to bring as many people up to level two as possible,” said Nancy Fitzpatrick, another coach involved in the program. “We want to eventually challenge Mississippi and Florida teams in the competition.”

Haskew and Fitzpatrick are both members of the Fairhope Yacht Club, and Haskew says he has been working with special athletes for more than 20 years. Despite the training and competitions, they both say the contest is not about winning.

“This is about building relationships with people and putting people on a boat,” he said. “We are trying to increase sailing in this area as well as get more clubs interested in working with special athletes.”

Special Olympics is an international organization designed to help people with intellectual disabilities develop physical and social skills. It began with Eunice Kennedy Shriver in 1962. She started a summer day camp in June of that year for children and adults with disabilities to see what they could do. From there, she promoted their involvement in physical activities, and in 1968, the first Special Olumpics Summer Games were held at Soldier Field in Chicago. Today the Special Olympics has had almost 3 million athletes from more than 180 countries.