Ignite the Passion: Hannah Cockroft and Isaiah Kioiloglou—How Sport Can Drive Inclusivity and Positive Social Change

The two women discussed the importance of social inclusion through sport and how it can be used to end the daily experiences of exclusion faced by people with disabilities. Cockroft described being shut out of sports clubs as a girl and being told they were not for people like her. She compared that to being barred from a shop because it doesn't have a ramp or a train because it has no staff to assist with boarding.

"Sport is such an important factor for social inclusion because it is so easy to adapt," says Cockroft. "Everyone can do a disability sport, whether you're able-bodied or not. It is inclusive for all."

Cockroft and Kioiloglou also agreed that sport should not only be inclusive but safe. The "safe sport" movement has grabbed the spotlight in recent years because of the toll that competition can take on athletes' mental well-being. The 2016 IOC Consensus Statement defines safe sport as, "an athletic environment that is respectful, equitable and free from all forms of harassment and abuse."

Cockroft, who will again face the world's best wheelchair racers at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Game, believes that safe sport is sport that's free of not only doping and abuse but also from negative language or lack of support when an athlete disappoints.

"Everyone wants to step up and celebrate with you when the race has gone well," she says, "but everyone disappears when the race hasn't gone the way you wanted. For me, safe sport is when, no matter the result, people are there to support and be present. It's using positive language and knowing that no athlete gets on that start line to lose. You have to be empathetic, put yourself in the athlete's situation and realize that we are all just human. The sooner we understand that the safer the sport will be."