Inclusive Sports
About Being Where I Would Never Have Imagined
I’m a 19-year-old guy from Bauru, in the state of São Paulo, Brasil. Being diagnosed with autism at age five brought me some new leases on life. Today I consider it to be one of the best moments in my whole life.
That’s partly because one of the greatest opportunities I have received came through being part of Special Olympics Brasil. In November 2025, I was invited to join the Brasilian basketball team at the Unified 3x3 Basketball World Cup, hosted in San Juan, Puerto Rico. I am not a basketball athlete, but the Special Olympics Brazil administration trusts in my ability to try to develop new skills, and it makes me feel encouraged to face these challenges.
Special Olympics Brazil trusts in my ability to try to develop new skills, and it makes me feel encouraged to face these challenges.
Puerto Rico is part of the Special Olympics Latin America region. I first thought the country was just a small island located next to the Dominican Republic. When I arrived at San Juan, this perspective changed: now, it seemed so near to Brasil! A community with a rich culture, somewhere out of the ordinary. I felt as if Puerto Ricans were like my neighbors — people with whom I would share some important moments of my life.
And now, more than ever, I have made new friends. The Brazilian team had already been assembled, and I was the newbie. Despite this, I have never seen such a beautiful relationship among the players. They weren’t only people with and without disabilities, but also friends playing basketball, and not counting the result of the games. Even though they were hardly trained, after getting the chance to be there, they worried about having fun together and teaching the newbie their techniques to play as wonderfully as they always do.
When sharing with me his experiences in the World Cup, Gabriel Gama, one of my Unified partners, told me he started to value inclusion in a closer context.
“It showed me that the sport — basketball, soccer, badminton, etc. — is not only a hobby that a person does because he likes it. It’s also because this is a social inclusion tool that unites people with disabilities and those without disabilities,” Gama said. Regarding my experience, I don’t have enough words to thank Special Olympics Brasil, my teammates, and also my coaches. You gave me a wonderful opportunity that made me comprehend that Special Olympics Unified Sports® can endure through life.