Catching Up with Courageous Use of Sport Award Winner Souleyman in the UK
October 21, 2022
We’re currently accepting entries for Beyond Sport’s sixth annual Courageous Use of Sport Award presented by WWE through October 31. In celebration, we’ve been catching up with last year’s winners to give us an update on their community work and provide words of wisdom for those wishing to apply for the 2022 award. This week, we spoke to Souleyman Bah from the United Kingdom.
Souleyman faced many setbacks after coming to the UK from Guinea at the age of five. Discrimination from being a refugee, Black, Muslim and having a visual impairment pushed him to become a role model for the communities he represents. As a Team GB Paralympian, founder of non-profit Vision Beyond Sight and a youth ambassador for the Royal Society for Blind Children, he continues to pursue inclusion for people with disabilities - in sport and in business.
Despite his many successes, Souleyman shared that his journey to spur change in the business world has been challenging as there aren’t enough voices projecting the same message. However, his work with Vision Beyond Sight has been extremely positive and beneficial he shared.
Through motivational speeches and fitness programs in schools, the non-profit provides young people with the opportunity to take part in physical activity and to be inspired. “They’re able to work up a sweat whilst smiling, which is a rewarding feeling I can’t describe. It’s great to see them implement the positive mindset habits that I shared with them to help improve their own personal lives.”
Souleyman has also taken up visually impaired Judo, which he says has positively impacted his day-to-day life. “It has increased my ability to focus and carry out aggressive goals and targets through the subtle art of compassion and going with the flow, which has improved balance in my life.”
In July of this year, Souleyman was invited to speak at Beyond Sport’s Beyond the Games summit held in partnership with Sport England and UK Sport. He spoke on the importance of trusting our communities and shared his passion and experience within the area of disability inclusion and its role in the workplace.
“It was a pleasure to speak at Beyond the Games,” he said. “Through my positive experience of seeing the structure and respect which has been cultivated in disability sports, I expected the same in the boardroom and business world, however, this has not been my experience. I have made it my mission to raise awareness and inclusion for all disabilities in all sectors.”
Souleyman also shared that while he will continue to work on self-improvement and disability inclusion, moving forward he plans to focus on increasing and diversifying his target audience. “I will be speaking directly to corporations and government bodies as frequently as I am present in the classroom environment to make sure my message is being received both by future employers as well as employees of our next generation.”
Upon winning the 2021 Courageous Use of Sport Award, Souleyman had a chance to speak with WWE superstar Bianca Belair. “Winning the award has done countless positive things for me and my career as well as increase my self-confidence,” he said. “Knowing that a prestigious organisation such as Beyond Sport has not only recognised my talent as an athlete but also highlighted my current community projects has ignited a flame in me to keep going and to always know that somebody believes in me even in the testing moments as an athlete/ entrepreneur.”
He advises those thinking about applying for this year’s award to “just go for it!”. Souleyman said he spent five days contemplating whether he was good enough to apply for the award and if he could compare to the other candidates. In the end, he applied in the last 30 minutes before the deadline. “I can now proudly say my application was successful because I went for it and believed in what I was doing. If you believe in what you are doing and have conviction that you are making the world a little bit better than how you found it, then this award is for you.”
Entries for the 2022 Courageous Use of Sport Award presented by WWE close October 31. Click here to learn more and apply.