Words by Cheyanne Bryan
“We don’t want inclusivity, we want exclusivity.” Sophia Warner tells Smiley News.
Recently Sophia Warner hosted the 2024 Superhero Series Triathlon event, an inclusive day event for people with disabilities. Over the course of the day, it featured three flexible challenges for participants to take part solo or in a team.
Sports have been a “running” theme in Sophia’s life, beginning in her early years, where she started off in community fitness groups, before progressing to championships and later to being a Team GB Paralympian in London 2012.
As someone with Cerebral Palsy, Sophia had made a name for herself as she was the first person with a disability to ever enter the London Triathlon in the mid-1990s.
The Superhero Series
Back in 2016, Sophia founded the Superhero Series as a way to address the lack of sporting events for the Everyday Superhero - people with disabilities. Its mission is to organise fun and inclusive sporting challenges while fostering a vibrant community.
Ensuring this, there are no cut-off times or equipment restrictions, allowing participants to choose from a variety of creative ways to complete their challenges in a manner that best suits their unique superpowers!
“We don't want inclusivity, we want exclusivity, we want a platform to take part in sport.” Sophia says, “we have one policy here, and that is you say yes to everything, and then you find out how that's going to happen. And so with that flexibility, you can take as long as you need to, and you can use whatever gadgets you need to. Just by having that philosophy, anything's possible, right?”
The next upcoming event hosted by the Superhero Series is their Winter Wonderwheels on the 1st of December. For more information, head over to their website here: https://superheroseries.co.uk/winter-wonderwheels-2024.
At Smiley Movement, we like to elevate the work of charities across the world. Here are three charities whose causes align with the themes in this article.
Special Olympics. This nonprofit organisation is a global movement that uses sports to tackle the inactivity, stigma, isolation, and injustice that people with intellectual disabilities (ID) face. Find out more.
The Children’s Trust. This charity is the UK's leading charity for children with brain injury. They deliver a range of rehabilitation, education and community services. Find out more here.
Activity Alliance. This charity champions fairness in sport and activity.Their goal is to close the gap between disabled people's level of inactivity and that of non-disabled people. Support them here.
