Regional Athlete Leaders: Asia Pacific

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Members of the new Asia Pacific Regional Athlete Leadership Council had several days of onboarding training in July 2025. Members of the outgoing council shared knowledge and experience, helping the new members adjust to their roles as advisors on topics that span the Region. The athlete leaders got training on communication, building teams, working together in groups, Unified Leadership, leadership styles, advocacy and storytelling, and creating S.M.A.R.T. goals.

Athlete leaders from Australia and Singapore attended the Special Olympics Asia Pacific Regional Leadership Conference in October 2025, playing crucial supporting roles. The conference gathered Program leaders from the entire Region. Athlete leaders and youth leaders teamed up to present introductory games and stretching breaks. Athlete leaders addressed the Program leaders on topics such as practices for aging athletes, coaching, advocacy and health systems, athletes on boards of directors, and hosting competitions.

“Leadership for me is not just about showing up,” says Athlete Leader Carmelo “Dacki” Sandiego. “It’s about the what and the why and the how. Leadership is about: what’s my purpose? How will I attain that purpose? And why—why am I doing this, why am I here, why do I have to do this?”

“The why is the most crucial part.”

In 2025, Dacki’s growth as a leader at Special Olympics Pilipinas accelerated after a three-day Special Olympics Leadership Academy, says Aa Galicia, National Director of the Program in The Pilipinas.

“After the Leadership Academy, I knew that Dacki is not just an athlete—he transitioned from a Dacki who was just on the side, to a Dacki who can be a leader who represents what inclusion truly looks like,” Aa said. “Dacki has gained much more confidence, much more self-esteem. And the way he connects with people…Parents and athletes and families are saying, ‘Wow, these are the things my kids with intellectual and developmental disabilities can do.’ So Dacki went from athlete, to Athlete Leader, to an inspiration to everybody.”

Dacki flew to Berlin for the Global Athlete Congress in 2023, a week of intensive training, collaboration, and idea sharing. It was there that he revealed his plan for creating work opportunities for others with intellectual disabilities.

It was in Berlin that Dacki called out, “It is goodbye, comfort zone. Hello, opportunities and developments,” in response to a session on beliefs that limit a person’s ambitions.

That memorable line caught on and was repeated often during the rest of the Global Athlete Congress. “Leadership is all about leading people by example—not just by actions like ‘do this, do that’,” Dacki says. “You have to show them. You have to demonstrate it. And then make that person understand where you’re coming from, so that when it’s their time to do that role or responsibility, it’s going to be easier for them—because you demonstrated it, you prepared them.”

Dacki brings focus and precision to his leadership. He demonstrated that as he left a four-year term on the Athlete Leadership Council for Special Olympics Asia Pacific. He carefully and thoroughly briefed his successor and her mother on the role, responsibilities and experience of being on the council. “Dacki goes into so much detail that on our end, we don’t have anything much to do,” Aa said. The Leadership Academy marked another turning point for Dacki. The curriculum gave him tools to finalize his plan for forming his own company.

It will employ people with intellectual disabilities in the design and sale of reusable bags, tumblers, and T-shirts. He will balance that with his full-time job as a talent scout for a human resources company and his continuing work as an athlete leader and role model. He’ll have a lot to balance. “Making the proper choices means making the toughest decisions,” Dacki says.

Expanding and supporting the work took Tiffany to Sydney, Australia, for Athlete Leadership training early in 2025. It was the local Program’s first in-person Athlete Leadership training since the COVID pandemic.

Her first year, 2024, was all about mastering the Athlete Leadership and Unified Leadership courses and establishing relationships with the Asia Pacific Programs that are active in one, the other, or both.

In 2025, Tiffany focused on sustaining those Programs and expanding into others by training local staff and mentors.

Now, Tiffany can share her perspective after seeing athletes in contexts across the Region. At the training in Sydney, she saw that the Australian athletes thought the challenges and issues they are facing happen only in Australia. “It opened their eyes to know that many of the challenges are just the same, athletes in other places face so many things in such a similar way.”