Floor Hockey is the only team sport in Special Olympics winter sports. Floor Hockey is adapted from the games of ice hockey and ringette. It is a sport which has ability appropriate levels ranging from beginning to high level athletes. Ability levels are determined by Individual Sports Skills Contests. Unlike alpine or cross country skiing, floor hockey gives athletes who live in warm climates the opportunity to participate in Special Olympics Winter Sports. Floor Hockey is very popular in the Caribbean Region and a team from Jamaica competed during the 1993 World Winter Games in Austria. At the 1997 World Winter Games in Toronto, approximately 81 teams from 65 countries competed in the Floor Hockey competition. Special Olympics offers a variety of floor hockey events from which athletes can choose to participate. The floor hockey competition offerings are based upon athletes’ ability levels. A summary of those competition offerings follows: For athletes with lower ability who do not have the skill to play team floor hockey, events are offered in the individual skills competition such as stick handling a puck through a series of cones. For athletes with moderate to advanced ability, there is team competition. This is the traditional floor hockey event offered in Special Olympics. Special Olympics also offers a floor hockey Unified Sports® competition. Unified Sports® is a program that combines equal numbers of Special Olympics athletes with peer athletes, without mental retardation (Partners) on sports teams for training and competition. Special Olympics Floor Hockey is played in a rink, but the surface is made a wood or concrete, not ice. The teams are comprised of six players, including a goalie. The athletes use wooden poles (without blades) as the sticks and the pucks are large felt discs with an open center. Special Olympics International acts as the Governing Body for floor hockey. Special Olympics is the first organization other than a national Olympic Committee to be officially recognized and endorsed by the International Olympic Committee.