Special Olympics training and competition is open to every person with mental retardation who is at least eight years of age and who registers to participate in Special Olympics. A person is considered to have mental retardation for purposes determining his or her eligibility to participate in Special Olympics if that person satisfies one of the following requirements:
- The person has been identified by an agency or professional as having mental retardation as determined by their localities; or
- The person has a cognitive delay as determined by standardized measures such as intelligence quotient or "IQ" testing or other measures which are generally accepted within the professional community in Virginia as being a reliable measure of the existence of a cognitive delay; or
- The person has a closely-related developmental disability, which means having functional limitations in both general learning (such as IQ) and in adaptive care (such as recreation, work, independent living, self-direction, or self-care).
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