The Southern California Special Olympics will return to Long Beach this weekend — with more than 1,300 athletes and coaches set to compete in this year’s games.

The festivities will kick off on Friday, June 6, with the Special Olympics opening ceremony at Cal State Long Beach’s Walter Pyramid at 6:30 p.m.

Besides celebrating this year’s athletes, the opening ceremony will also feature the traditional cauldron lighting, which serves as the official start of the competition and marks the end of the two-week law enforcement torch run, a relay that escorts the Flame of Hope to its final destination at the Summer Games.

Then, on Saturday and Sunday, June 8-9, the games will begin. This year’s athletes will vie for medals and ribbons in five different sports — track and field, basketball, bocce, flag football and swimming.

“Summer Games truly showcases our mission to enrich and empower people with intellectual disabilities through the power of sports,” SOSC’s president and CEO, Kelly Pond, said in a recent announcement. “The teamwork, confidence, spirit and determination of our athletes define what sports are all about.”

Both athletes with and without intellectual disabilities will again participate in SOSC’s unified sports events for bocce and flag football this year, the announcement said.

The unified sports event was originally introduced in 2023, and aims to bring people with and without disabilities together in a meaningful way.

“Summer Games celebrate the power of sport and the role it plays in uniting communities and encouraging inclusion among athletes of all abilities,” the organization’s announcement said.

While the majority of this year’s games will be held at CSULB, the swimming competition will take place at Millikan High School, 2800 Snowden Ave.

The Summer Games event will also feature Healthy Athletes, a program that offers participants free health screenings from volunteer health care professionals.

In addition, there will be a Young Athletes area, which will offer kids aged 2 to 7 a chance to work on fine motor skills anf hand-eye coordination, and get a taste of what it would be like to participate in the Special Olympics some day.

The Special Olympics will also feature a festival with music and games — alongside a fan zone where supporters can make their own custom signs to support their favorite athlete.

“There’s no limit to what Special Olympics athletes can achieve,” Pond said, “and we hope the community will come to cheer on our local competitors.”

For details about the Special Olympics event schedule, visit sosc.org/summergames.