Sporting Talents in the Life Project (COSP19 Side Event)

I ask to take place and to sit down, everybody.
Thank you.
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Well, Minister Locatelli, thank you very much indeed for inviting us to join you today for this very significant event.
We're grateful for your invitation.
So Minister Locatelli and I first met in Assisi just ahead of the G seven summit which culminated in the Solfgano Charter.
And then we last met, most recently in Rome and then in London, just after the conclusion of the successful Cortina Milano Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games.
I just want to begin by reiterating the congratulations I expressed on those occasions to Italy on hosting such a successful games earlier this year, very important achievement and a real milestone, I think, in disability inclusion.
And those events reminded us all of the enormous power of sport and of the amazing abilities and achievements of the Olympians and Paralympians, and it's an honor that we're going to be hearing from some of them today.
In the UK, we want every person, no matter what their background, to have the opportunity to take part in sport and physical activity in society and in our culture.
That is, of course, a key commitment in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
But we particularly recognize the vital role that sport plays for disabled people, both at the elite level and also at the grassroots local level.
Significant barriers still exist, and we are working to remove them while urging sporting bodies to make accessibility a priority.
One of the barriers, and we call this the activity trap, is a fear on the part of disabled people, but if they do become physically active, then my department might well conclude that they don't need their disability benefits anymore and take them away.
We know from research that this fear is a real barrier to taking part in sport and physical activity.
We haven't yet got a solution, but it is something that needs our attention.
We're backing our commitment with some big investments.
Our multi sports grassroots facility program is delivering in the UK 85 million pounds for community facilities and one of the aims of that program is to increase participation amongst underrepresented groups, including disabled people.
We've got port England's ten year uniting the movement strategy, which reinforces that focus.
Through the movement fund, over 20 million pounds of lottery and Excer funding is invested every year.
To open up opportunities for people to play sports, to take part in physical activity, prioritizing the least active groups such as disabled people.
Sport transforms lives.
We're going to continue this work until sport in the UK is truly open, welcoming, and accessible to everybody.
There will be challenges in getting there, but we are determined, and echoing the determination we've heard on the part of Italy, we are determined to reach that goal.
Thank you.
Tate Chirgal President of the International Disability Alliance, Nawaf Cabara, Chedla Pola, Sean Ferguson, Chief Global Government Relations Officer Special Olympics International.
Distinguished delegates, colleagues and friends.
First, I must say a huge thank you to both Commissioner Ds and Minister Locatelli for being huge champions of the Special Olympics movement.
They both have recently displayed that in that their countries hosted our last two world games in Berlin and in turn, both of which were outstanding and historic events that would have not been as successful without the leadership of these two champions.
First and foremost, thank you so much for that.
I also and speaking of champions, I must point out that Elena Apani from the Lions Club is here.
Lions Club is probably one of our longest and most generous sponsors in the history in the nearly 60 year history of the Special Olympics movement.
We couldn't do anywhere near the things that we're able to do for people with intellectual disabilities without the friendship and the support of the Alliance.
So thank you, Elaine and thank you to all Lyons for being here, which I am a member of the Lions Club as well too.
Happy to be a part of your organization as well.
I The title of today's event, Seeing Potential and Not Limits describes exactly what happens every single day in the Special Olympics movement around the world.
Special Olympics was founded nearly 60 years ago by Eunice Kennedy Shriver with a radical idea that persons with intellectual disabilities deserve the same opportunity to develop and demonstrate their talents as anyone else.
Not as a charitable act, not as therapy, but as a right, precisely the framing that the CRPD enshrines.
This is the shift in perspective that this event calls for.
When Special Olympics athletes step onto the field, onto the court, onto the pitch or into the pool, something powerful happens, not just for them, but for every coach, every volunteer, family member, and spectator present.
The prejudice that we often see begins to crumble right in front of our eyes, right in real time.
You cannot watch someone run their fastest race and only see limitations.
You see ability.
As we know, the CRPD guarantees the right to participate in cultural life, recreation, leisure, and sport on an equal basis.
Special Olympics thrives to be living proof that when you design sport as a tool for everyday equality, ensuring accessibility, providing individualized support, welcoming every ability level, you don't lower the bar.
You reveal how high it was wrongly placed to begin with.
And critically, the impact reaches far and beyond the athlete.
Special Olympics have the unified sports model where athletes with and without intellectual disabilities train and compete together.
It is one of the most evidence based inclusion interventions we have.
It changes attitudes in schools, in communities, and in workplaces.
Not only is this programming something that deeply affects students with intellectual disabilities, but it also affects positively their non disabled peers in school.
This is the community transformation that this event envisions.
Testimonies you will hear today reflect what Special Olympics sees in over 190 countries.
That persons with disabilities are not waiting to be included, they are leading, they are inspiring, and redefining what human potential looks like.
The question before us is not whether they have potential.
The question is whether our societies have the audacity to finally see it.
Thank you, Minister, for the time and for your opportunity to present here today.
Thank you.
An Ferguson, Paso La Pola, Jurgen Duel, Federal Government Commissioner for Interest of Persons with disability, Prego.
Congrats.
Von Giorno, good morning, everybody.
Thank you very much, Alissandra.
Thank you very much, Steven, for the invitation and the possibility to make a short statement right here.
When we're talking about sport, when we're talking about the joy and the energy of sport, of course, we are talking about something very beautiful and I think we will see it on Friday, the World Championship of Soccer starts here in the United States and in other countries.
And I think we're talking about joy and energy, but we are talking about a human right.
193 countries adopted and ratified the UNCRPD and Article 30 is very important for sport and for the rights for persons with disabilities, to make sport, of course, as athletes, we heard it and have access to the sport environment, to to a stadium, to go to an event, to have access.
Of course, the first thing I remember when I'm talking about sports for persons with disability, I remember 2012, the Paralympics in London.
It was really a milestone, just making persons and people with disability visible.
I was so impressed.
It was 14 years ago and I still remember um, the enthusiasms and enthusiastic reactions of the people in Great Britain.
This was really new.
Of course, I remember the Paralympics in Cotina.
The very important thing is that sport has an impact.
It has an impact on society.
Because when you're talking about the Paralympic movement, when you're talking about the Special Olympic movement, you're talking about, having access and removing the barriers.
For example, when we've been to Cortina, I was really impressed that this small village in the mountains make really success in removing barriers, for example, in the touristic sector.
When we're talking about the Special Olympics, and I remember very well the world games in Berlin, it makes a real, it really had a real impact in the German society because we learned well, we know it all, but sometimes people have to learn how beautiful it is to see diversity in our society and to see what athletes with intellectual ability with intellectual disabilities are able to do and to have success and you see all the joy and the energy and I think it's the responsibility of a country who adopted UNCRPD not only to say, okay, we ratified it, Article 30, but it's the responsible responsibility for a country to make sure that the people with disabilities are able to live, the rights of Article 30.
I think we all have to do much more that people with disability have the possibility to make sport not only the top athletes we saw, but also the people, as you said, the grassroot movement, to be accepted in a club, for example, to have a welcome situation there, especially for persons maybe with intellectual disability and to live their talents there.
Thank you very much again for this invitation and yeah, I wish you and the sporting community all the best not only during the soccer championship we always waiting for.
It's not a good theme for Italy, I know, but sorry, but I hope you will enjoy it.
Bye bye.
Grams German ist Graze paso Susana Rogers, Paralympic athletes, and advocate United Kingdom.
Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests, fellow athletes and sports enthusiasts here today.
It is a pleasure to speak at this event organized by the Italian Mission.
I also, as with the Minister, want to congratulate Italy on hosting a very successful Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games edition in Milano, Cortina earlier this year.
My journey into sport, in fact, brought me closer to my own identity as a woman with a disability.
Prior to pursuing a career in professional swimming, I had lived my life very much navigating barriers in society and attempting to blend into societal norms in a way I was trying to hide.
The place where I was always happiest though, and completely free without wearing my prosthetic limbs or my orthotic devices was in the water.
You could say that sport and swimming in my case gave me complete freedom.
As people with disabilities, we often navigate biases and misunderstanding.
We can feel frequently invisible, but we should remember that with over 1 billion people with disabilities globally, we are the world's largest minority group.
With this, we should be active protagonists in our own communities, ensuring that we are seen and heard.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
It has helped to drive progress towards equality around the world.
But unlike in sport, I think we all know that life doesn't start with a level playing field for everyone.
It's a lottery as to where you live, your gender, the family into which you were born, and many other intersecting identities, all of which can amplify and increase barriers to equal participation.
Sport very much helped me to grow personally and build my skills to become even more visible and proud as a disabled woman.
For those who don't know, I represented my country at two Paralympic Games in London 2012, which was indeed a great game, and the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, which was also fantastic because that was where I won gold.
Thank you.
I love talking about it because it was ten years ago now, and no one asks me anymore, and I have it with me today.
But it does remain one of the greatest experiences of my life, and I feel extremely fortunate to have represented my country.
Competing in the Paralympics against other disabled athletes around the world from different cultures and backgrounds has really opened my eyes to other people's lived experience of disability beyond my own.
We do know that sport has the power to inspire others and that has been demonstrated as the minister mentioned several programs.
There's also the UK program Everybody Moves through Paralympics GB this year, which was a campaign to get people physically active and involved in sport across the country.
I think it really demonstrates that we need to capitalize on the momentum that's created through sporting events and large scale sporting events around the world, Special Olympics, deaf Olympics, and the Paralympics.
In my current role, I actually work as a technical advisor on disability to the UK government.
This has deepened my understanding of the global disability movement further.
Through connecting with organizations of persons with disabilities and their representatives, I have seen the importance of a united voice and mutual support, especially around the implementation of the CRPD.
There is still a long way to go in many parts of the world.
I'm fortunate in the UK that we have access to support, assistive technology, and opportunities to compete for the country.
Sport started out as a hobby for me and eventually it became my profession.
Not every disabled person wants to be an athlete, but every disabled person should have an opportunity to live independently with access to education, employment, and social opportunities.
Sport is one of many ways, alongside arts, music, culture, education, to open up the world and life path for people with disabilities everywhere, whether at elite levels, through grassroots participation, sport can change lives.
It builds social networks, supports physical and mental well being and creates opportunities for growth.
As an athlete, I learned resilience, determination, and patience.
This is why access to sport and other opportunities are so important.
I did retire after the Paralympic Games in Rio nearly a decade ago, but I will always be an athlete in identity and spirit.
I still swim three times a week before work in the very place I won three bronze medals nearly 14 years ago now.
But of course, my relationship with sport has changed.
It's no longer about winning, but about well being, longevity, and carrying forward the skills and lessons sport taught me.
In closing, I want to thank Minister Tims for inviting me to CSP and asking me to speak on behalf of the UK delegation and to thank the Italian Mission again for allowing me to speak.
Thank you very much.
The International Disability Alliance Cabar al Madani disability sport Good morning, everyone.
Well, first of all, I see that I understand Italian today.
Second, I'm sorry to being late, but I got some dizziness on my way here, so I have to sit down a little bit relax and so on.
Now, let me go to the subject.
The whole philosophy of our work is the recognition of disability within the system of production of meaning.
We'd like to make sure that disability is included in the fabric of the production of what is important in society.
I think one of the most important achievement of the disability movement is to shift disability from being not only marginalized, outside total of existence and putting it under the hand of the medical school and others into accepting disability as a state of belonging, state of existence, and therefore within the right paradigm.
One of the most important success is really disability sport.
The sport has a special place in human society.
Across cultures, sports is a ritual of belonging.
It brings people together.
It makes people compete without killing each other.
For person ability, this method deeply affect us.
Too often, society first sees limitation.
It sees a wheelchair, sees an negle.
The story.
In 1996, I ran for confidential election.
Of course, I had a photo in a wheelchair.
Two people were passing, one and the other look like this guy has put himself in the chair before he's elected because they're conservative, there is no wheelchair.
It sees a blind person before it sees a strategist, either inmate.
It sees support means before it sees talent.
Sport has disrupted the imagination.
It does not obser but through encounter.
When a child with disability enterta field gym, swimming pool, or a community sport club, the question began to change.
The question is no longer what is missing.
The question becomes what is possible? What support is needed, and what talent can grow.
Here.
But we must be careful.
The value of sport is not limited to elite performance or middle the life of sport.
Project of a person whose disability cannot depend on becoming exual in order to be respected.
Sport is powerful because it builds ordinary human freedoms, confidence, friendship, discipline, physical and mental well being, leadership, joy, and the right to take up public space.
It gives the person the sense of importance of existence or being here and being respected of what they're doing.
Let me give you an example.
Take, for example, football.
For a long time, football for us is a man male sport.
Lately, we started seeing women playing football.
Up to this moment, We can see that it's not yet respected and valued as it is in male sports.
Football? Why? Because the system that is based on male superiority did not recognize yet feminist sport as something serious, tangible, and capable of pursuing skills, money, and development.
The same with disability.
This is where the CRPD is essential.
Article 30 recognizes the right of personal disabilities to participate in cultural life, recreation, leisure, and sport.
That might not be experience in schools, implemented in school, communities refugee setting.
Let me cross over what you say.
As we celebrate 20 years of the CRPD, let us ensure that every persons with disability has an opportunity to develop a title project that includes movement, friendship, ambition play, competition and joy.
Because inclusion is also felt in the body, it is felt when we come onto the field when our contribution matters and when society learns to cheer for all of us.
Thank you very much.
Grab, President, Port.
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Good morning, everyone.
Thank you for having me, Minister Locatel to the Italian Paralympic Committee.
I'm Veronica Yoo, and I've had the honor to represent Italy as the first woman in three different Paralympic sports.
My journey with disability began when I was 15-years-old.
At that age, everything changed very quickly.
The way you see yourself, the way that others see you, and the future that you imagine for yourself.
During that transformation, sport became my everything.
And regardless of the level, sport for people with disability is so much more than competition.
It is competition for real, but it's so much more.
It's a place of discovery, a place where questions become answers most of the time.
Many of us enter sports looking for strength.
We search for confidence, trying to redefine what we've been taught about our bodies, our limits, and our abilities.
But what we often find is something even more powerful.
Through sport, we can find identity and community.
We can find new ways to imagine ourselves and our future.
My experience as an athlete has told me that one of the highest expression of human dignity is having the opportunity to discover what you're passionate about, to experience it fully, to express yourself through it, and to connect with others because of it.
This opportunity should not be a privilege, as we know, it should be a right.
Today around the world, many persons with disability are still denied access to sport for many different reasons.
I think that we can measure the development of a society by how it treats marginalized people.
When these rights are denied, what is lost is not only participation.
What is lost is possibility.
I know that in this room we all know about it but I am one of the many living proof that possibility is where every future begins.
That's why I'm here today.
In a world where fundamental rights are erased on a daily basis, I believe that we have the responsibility not only to defend the rights of persons with disability, but also to expand society's understanding of what is possible as Paralympic athletes do every day.
Will never get tired to say that when we create accessible environments, inclusive policies, and equal opportunities, people with disability do not simply participate, we contribute, we innovate, and we lead.
We help build stronger communities for everyone, not just for people with disability.
My life changed because I was given opportunities and I know it's a big privilege still today, it's a big privilege to experience that.
My hope is that future generations of persons with disability will not have to fight simply for access to sport, but just simply can enjoy it and have this chance of life.
Hope we can all work together for that.
Thank you.
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As we continue our efforts to implement the convention and advance the 2030 agenda for sustainable development, we must continue to invest in policies and partnerships that empower persons with disabilities to realize their full potential, and it has been done by the Italian government in this last few years.
To conclude, let us work together to build societies where talents are not overlooked, where aspirations are not limited by barriers, and where every person has the opportunity to contribute fully to community life.
Because when we create the conditions for persons with disabilities to thrive, we strengthen not only individual lives, but also the social fabric of our societies.
Thank you.
Thank you to all of you.
Congrats.
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