When asked about the state of Athlete Leadership, Amanda Harrinauth spoke plainly. “Let's not just say that we want to do these things. Let's actually do it.”
Harrinauth is an athlete leader from Special Olympics Northern California who attended the Special Olympics North America (SONA) Regional Athlete Congress in Michigan.
“These things” that she wants done cover a lot of ground: boosting the presence of people with intellectual disabilities in the media, recruiting more medical professionals to serve as volunteer clinical directors, and decisively increasing the influence of athlete leaders inside and outside of Special Olympics.
And there’s more on her list of to-dos.
“I do have a lot inside me because I think all of it is just, you know, pent up frustration from being left out, from being left out for years, and nobody asking me what my opinion is,” she says. “I want my voice to be heard, and my voice is no different because of the type of disability I have.”
The SONA Regional Congress was held to hear from Harrinauth and other athlete leaders from the United States, Canada and the Caribbean. All Special Olympics Regions worldwide are holding regional congresses to lay groundwork for the 2027 Global Athlete Congress in Santiago, Chile.
The Rise of a New Generation of Athlete Leaders
Now is the best time for athletes with intellectual disabilities to actively lead Special Olympics, according to SONA's senior staff and accomplished athlete leaders. Two decades of organizational learning, growth in public awareness, and evidence of more welcoming mindsets have led to a unique moment of readiness inside and outside of Special Olympics.
“In the beginning, there was not enough experience, and there was not enough receptivity to listening to the views of people with disabilities, because maybe society didn't believe that they could share their thoughts.”
“But the world has changed,” she says. “We have a whole generation of young people that have had that experience, and now they are really ready to explain to us what this means in their lives and how it affects them.”
At one time, even athlete leaders themselves weren’t sure of the value they offered, Cahn said. That attitude seems to be fading.
“It pisses me off when people doubt me because they're doubting my ability,” says Athlete Leader Erin Magee of Special Olympics Nova Scotia. “We deserve to have the right to share our voice and to share our opinions. We should never be afraid to do something. We shouldn't be afraid to do something because we should be doing something.”
Harrinauth agrees.
“It’s not enough just to listen. Let’s get some action behind it,” Harrinauth says. “We need to get boots on the ground.”
Athlete leaders like Ben Fields of Special Olympics Oregon are inclined to take action.
“I've always been an ambitious person,” Fields says. He is aware that people see him as a rising star among athlete leaders, and he knows why.
“When I see an opportunity, I always want to take advantage of that opportunity. And, so, I'm not afraid to just put myself out there.”
Athlete Leaders Turn the Tables in Michigan
Harrinauth, Magee and Fields were among the 25 athlete leaders from Special Olympics North America Programs who attended the SONA Regional Athlete Congress. The Congress had several goals, and a key one was to select 10 athlete leaders to represent the Region at next year’s Global Athlete Congress in Chile. Athlete participants took part in classes, workshops and wide-ranging discussions focused on challenges that will be discussed in Chile.
Several athlete leaders at the SONA Regional Athlete Congress said it was a turning point for how they feel about their place in the organization. Senior leaders asked all 25 athlete leaders for their opinions on a variety of topics. In turn, the athlete leaders peppered those senior leaders with questions that showed a deep appreciation for leadership and its responsibilities.
That approach impressed Tom Quade, Senior Director of Health Programs for the SONA Region. He had expected to hear complaints about personal experiences, so, when athlete leaders asked about improving the system and broadening access, and suggested ideas about recruiting more medical professionals as volunteers, he said it was “very interesting and actually exciting.”
Every answer Quade provided led the athlete leaders “to think about how we could do it differently.”
Defining Leadership through Purposeful Action
Those question-and-answer sessions let the SONA athletes show how they lead in action. “For me, leadership is me being courageous,” says Jean Paul Isidore, Athlete Leader from Special Olympics Saint Lucia. “Fears are something that we need to overcome. When you overcome your fear, you become greater. You make changes. You improvise. You set goals, and you succeed.”
The confidence that athlete leaders are showing comes from training that Special Olympics provides athletes specifically to unlock their potential.
“Something in you has to come out,” explains David Duncan, Athlete Leader from Special Olympics Jamaica and Chairman of the Global Athlete Leadership Council. “It's uncomfortable to be in a role where you are talking in front of a lot of persons, especially when they don't agree with you. It's difficult, but you have to have that belief in yourself and be willing to take a risk.”
Special Olympics’ Athlete Leadership training has built that belief in athlete leaders. Now, it’s the role of Program and Region leaders throughout Special Olympics to take what they’ve built and use it.
A Pivot Long in the Making
“Every single athlete has an individual goal, an individual action that they're trying to achieve,” says Greg Epperson, Regional President and Managing Director for Special Olympics North America. “The challenge is understanding how we can take the collective ideas of that and pull it together to improve what we're doing as a movement. It is critical to our success.”
The SONA Regional Athlete Congress demonstrated a deliberate pivot in the Region’s approach to athlete leaders.
“Instead of us coming to them with potential ideas and ways that we're going to do things and asking for their feedback, now, it’s them actually driving the direction, driving the things that we're going to achieve,” Epperson says.
Years of Training with an Unexpected Blind Spot
“For decades, we've been training athlete leaders in public speaking, governance, how to serve on a committee, how to serve on a board of directors, and really sending the message that your voice matters and you are empowered to have your voice at the table every time,” says Amie Dugan, Senior Vice President of Organizational Development for the SONA Region.
There was a blind spot, though. The athlete leaders who were trained, transformed, and ready to lead were hampered by well-intentioned people in leadership who didn’t know how to work with them productively, Dugan says.
The solution to that is still evolving, but an essential piece was the introduction of Unified Leadership training in 2020.
“Unified Leadership is people without intellectual disabilities trusting our trained athlete leaders, giving them opportunities, working alongside them, and then letting them share in the responsibility,” says Brandon Schatsiek, Senior Manager, Inclusive Leadership Development for Special Olympics. Brandon was among the leaders with and without intellectual disabilities who planned and ran the SONA Athlete Congress.
Unified Leadership is the complement to Athlete Leadership that has been needed all along, Dugan says.
“If we're going to go out and proselytize inclusion in our communities, in our workplaces, in our schools and Special Olympics, then we have to lead that way, too, and in an authentic way. If we don’t, I think we're just practicing a more sophisticated form of tokenism.”
Special Olympics athletes “are still not at the place where they're confident that their ideas will be taken and acted upon,” Andrea Cahn says. “And that's our charge. They want us to step up.”
Athlete Ben Fields says the SONA Athlete Congress could be a turning point for the Region.
“The hope is that after this Congress, they do go back and they hear what we're saying, and they say, ‘Oh, what we're doing here is not what the athletes want. Maybe we should pivot.’”
Fields may find that is the case. Athlete Leadership and Unified Leadership are investments, Epperson says.
“What athletes are expecting out of that investment is that they're heard and that they're listened to, and that we do take and utilize and engage in those ideas,” he says. “They’re expecting that the interaction and the collaboration don't stop here at the Athlete Congress and that as a part of this, their expectation should be, ‘Don't just take my ideas, but take us with you and let us work with you.’”
The SONA Congress Marks a New Starting Point
The athlete leaders who were at the SONA Athlete Congress know what’s at stake now even better than before. All the training and answered questions gave them skills and facts they would need back home. The gathering of athletes from different countries and different circumstances also allowed them to see that the challenges they face at home are like challenges others face.
“The world is a huge place. No matter what we go through, someone else goes through something even bigger or something smaller,” Jean Paul Isidore says. “And now we all don't have the solution to it all. But I think if we come together and work on things together, we can make a huge change. It’s going to happen.”
Between the end of the SONA Athlete Congress and the start of the Global Athlete Congress in 2027, 21 athlete leaders will be implementing projects to improve aspects of their communities through outreach, education, training, advocacy and more.
For Karen Kerr, Athlete Leader from Special Olympics Indiana, it’s prepping athlete leaders to advocate with state legislators. She sees that as paying forward what Special Olympics has done for her.
“I do what I was afraid to do a long time ago,” she says. “I'm no longer that person I was, and I'm now the person that I wanted to be, but I was afraid to be. I now know I have a voice, and I'm going to use it.”
