We often tend to ignore the positive role that sports can have in our life and, more widely, in society.

It is far more common to celebrate the big games and events and the champions who reach glory and fame across the globe. As a consequence, we do not realise the transformative power that sports has in all of us.

As we celebrate the International Day of Sports for Development and Peace today, it is paramount that we make an effort to think otherwise, highlighting what sports can achieve to make all of us better persons, and the overall society more equal and just.

Let's take, for example, the sensitive issues of gender equality and social inclusion.

Behind them, there are well entrenched and rooted issues that can only be overcome if there are transformational changes in people's mindsets and behaviours.

Laws and regulations alone, while indispensable, are not enough.

Here enters the role sports can play to change the status quo.

Sports can be a really great tool to advance the rights of the most oppressed and marginalised communities living in the country, and we truly need to think how sports can facilitate an honest conversation about these difficult actions. In a way, sports can embrace advocacy and even, to some extent, policy making, pitching neglected causes at the front of the debate, and there is one person who bravely and boldly is doing so.

I am talking about Sarita Thulung, a national sports athlete living with disabilities, who recently won the Pulsar Sports Award 2022 in the adaptive sports category.

Throughout the years, Sarita has been determined and steadfast to pursue excellence in the different domains of sports, from wheelchair basketball to power lifting to swimming.

In all these three categories, she always pushed herself beyond the limits and always believed in herself.

Self-confidence is something Sarita masters because she had to endure a lot of humiliation when, as a small kid with polio, she was deprived of an education, and she had to fight very hard in order to be able to study.

From her childhood in a village in eastern Nepal till now, Sarita has broken a lot of grounds and made strides not only as an athlete but also as a caring mother and spouse who is very focused on providing for her family.

Sarita has grit, an asset that is indispensable to emerge and succeed in life, and Sarita did succeed in life even though making a living is still a daunting task for her. I am not just talking about her numerous trophies and international competitions she has participated in, including the Singapore World Para Swimming World Series and the World Para-Swimming Championship in the UK.

Certainly we are celebrating a national sports champion, one example of several other athletes living with disabilities that have been representing Nepal internationally, with pride and determination, no matter the obstacles and challenges they have been facing.

But it is also important to talk about Sarita as an activist, someone who in the past spoke at the WOW-Women of the World festival, organised by the British Council to celebrate womanhood, and someone who was always ready to share her story and inspire others.

There are many ways to do activism and advocacy, and some of them are very well organised and well resourced.

Such efforts are very important because they are able to reach out to the most important stakeholders, but, complementary to them, there are other forms of doing the same, and in the case of Sarita, such actions were enabled by sports.

Sports allowed Sarita not only to reach the best she could be on the court or a swimming pool or in a gym but also supported her to find strength amid numerous adversities.

Her own experiences, her challenges and the way she got rid of them, are exemplary, and persons like Sarita should be invited by management colleges throughout the country to talk about their leadership journey, a story based on positive values, accountability and tons of resilience, all a prerequisite for any type of upskilling and re-skilling, two buzzwords now in vogue.

As an activist, Sarita also embraced her love for arts, singing and dancing, and she established the Cultural Society of People with Disabilities (CSPD), a small not-for- profit organisation trying to advocate for a more equal society, for a country that can embrace diversity and the contributions that persons with disabilities can bring to the society.

Athletes and artists like Sarita still struggle a lot, but they keep marching on, facing the obstacles before them 'head on'. They still hope that awards like the Pulsar Sports Award 2022 will offer them a broader audience and a platform for them to shine not only for their sports achievements but also for the cause they have been embracing.

Nepal will be a better place to live when the society becomes more equal and inclusive, when women have more power and a bigger voice, when persons with disabilities, members of gender minorities and Dalits will have a meaningful seating place in the corridors of power.

As we speak about the powerful role sports can have in our society, let's remind ourselves that Sarita and, like her, many of her peers are not asking for pity or charity. Their advocacy work and their struggles in the competitions and races call for dignity and respect instead. Sports can teach all of us, both of them, let's not forget this.

Galimberti is the co-founder of ENGAGE, an NGO partnering with youths living with disabilities

A version of this article appears in the print on April 6, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.