The 4th Para Asian Games are set to start on the 22nd of October in Hangzhou, China. Though much shorter than its twin event, the 19th Asian Games, thousands of athletes living with disabilities will prove their value and talent. Nepal is also sending a delegation of athletes.

I have the luck of knowing some of them, and what I can say is that they are not just great, competitive players but are also great persons. I am not only writing in terms of their sports-related skills but also in terms of the value they have espoused and decided to practice. After all, before being a multi-billion-dollar industry, sports is also about key principles that, if embedded in our lives, can make us true accomplished leaders.

Unfortunately, much more should be done to acknowledge and recognise the athletes of Team Nepal that will soon be competing in Hangzhou. Like their peers without disabilities, the reality is that it is hard to be an athlete in Nepal. How can athletes, with and without disabilities, compete at the highest levels if they lack proper training facilities? How can they win a medal if many of them are forced to prioritise alternative forms of livelihoods over practising because the latter does not pay anything?

The truth is that, if you live with disabilities and practise sports at the elite level (yes, you read well, elite level), the journey is even tougher, sadly. The lack of adequate support and lack of recognition and visibility that hamper the quest for excellence of able-bodied athletes are experienced in much bigger forms by those athletes with a disability. Besides those travelling for the Para Games, there are plenty of other players and athletes with disabilities that really try hard, play hard and aim big. Indeed, the reality is that even more people should have joined Team Nepal in Hangzhou, but for different reasons, mainly due to lack of resources, only a few could make it.

Unfortunately, the whole sector of adaptive sports is yet neither properly organised nor funded, and the vast majority of athletes lack a proper supportive system. No matter the challenges, the obstacles that hamper their growth, there are so many adaptive athletes that stay the course, steadfastly and with much grit and determination.

They want to compete at the highest levels, and they do their best to get closer and closer to victory.

Although it rarely comes in the form of a medal, these athletes actually win every single day because they never ever give up. They embrace a challenge wholeheartedly and they truly push themselves. It is through this pattern of persistent adversities, the same ones that afflict their daily lives, that athletes with disabilities becomes real champions. Yet isn't it unfair to force someone to turn into a champion of resilience as a matter of survival when the other members of the society have a much easier life?

Think about going to school or finding a job. If you are in a wheelchair or if you are visually impaired or if you live with dwarfism, your rights are neglected in systematic ways. Either you grind up and muster your strengths or you end up in a cycle of hopelessness. Unfortunately, the multiple obstacles and challenges faced by adaptive athletes in the country are compounded by stigma associated with their disabilities. It should not be that way.

Persons with disabilities should be supported and enabled to win and succeed as any other members of the society. If you are a para-athlete, you train hard not out of pity you expect from others. You actually hate the word 'pity' because it is disrespectful of your capacities and abilities. You do not want to win and become a champion or a role model because, somehow, you are able to navigate the many 'bumps' and 'mountains' that life and destiny gave to you.

You want to win because you have put in a hard effort in the sport discipline you love, and for which you have endured so many sacrifices. You want to be praised because you deserve it.

While writing this piece, I wish I could only focus on the sports dimension, but unfortunately it is not possible and it is not fair in the context of Nepal. If we really want to elevate adaptive sports in the country, we need to elevate the rights of persons living with disabilities.

We need special and temporary provisions like quotas to ensure that they have access not only to job opportunities but also direct access to power and decision making.

This is not just a daunting situation for a still developing nation like Nepal. Even in more advanced countries, there are still persistent disparities between persons with disabilities and persons without disabilities. But there, at least, fundamentals rights are better safeguarded and, therefore, more opportunities are available for persons with disabilities.

The good thing is that Nepal does not start from scratch. Some basic provisions are there, but they are not even close to international standards. We can and we should do more to ensure that persons living with disabilities can thrive and live. It is not easy, but it the right thing to do.

Back to the sports. I do not know what to expect from Team Nepal now in Hangzhou.

Probably the same lackluster trend of their peers without disabilities at the 19th Asian Games will continue. Ultimately, if we want to really turn around the sports sector in Nepal, adaptive and not, we really have to work at the system level.

Nepal could start with some innovative thinking and reflections that could bring about pilot projects for the most competitive athletes with and without disabilities.

Meanwhile let's wish the best to Team Nepal in the 4th Para Asian Games. No matter the number of medals they will bring back home, they will surely deserve a standing ovation from all of us.

Galimberti is the co-founder of ENGAGE and of the Good Leadership

A version of this article appears in the print on October 20, 2023, of The Himalayan Times