**Abstract**

This study discusses the heart rate (HR) in people with intellectual disability (ID) comparing the resting HR and HR after 2 minutes of exercise of athletes participating in Special Olympics (SO) in table tennis (TT) and cross-country (XC) skiing (XC skiing, 50 m, 1 km, and 3 km). The results showed a similar increase between the resting HR and HR after 2 minutes of exercise for TT players and XC skiers competing in 3 km race. Changes in HR in XC skiers competing in 50 m and 1 km races between the rest and exercise were noticeably higher indicating their lower fitness. Future studies focused on the relationship of HR variables, and training quality will provide a more detailed knowledge of the cardiorespiratory fitness and ID relationship.

**Keywords:** intellectual disability, cardiovascular fitness, cross-country skiing, table-tennis
