What do you want Special Olympics to be like in the next 50 years?

I want to end "them and us," and I wanna have only us, a new kind of us that replaces that idea. I hope some day we don't even think of disability. I hope someday we begin to see people of all kinds as being gifted before we start to see what their limitations or challenges might be. A giftedness-first mentality.

So I think we can teach that through Special Olympics. I think we can think it for our athletes, but even more importantly, for the 6 billion people on earth who are hungry for it. I think we're gonna change schools. I think we're gonna change early childhood. I think we're gonna change health care.

I think we're gonna change self-advocacy. And I think we're gonna ultimately change culture and political systems. So I'm pretty bullish. And I don't think there's an issue that's more important today in the world than where we face what I consider to be the most dangerous problem on earth, which is attitudes of mass destruction. The fuel of an attitude of mass destruction is the fear that someone is too different to be able to get along with.

And therefore, we have to exclude or bar or ban or even worse, destroy them. That's the most dangerous thing on earth today. We [at Special Olympics] have the opposite: attitudes of mass inclusion. That's why we're leading a revolution -- and it's gonna touch every country in the world. And in 50 years, maybe we'll be out of business because we'll have done all that. That would be wonderful.

ESPN: What do you hope that they teach us? What do you want us to learn this week?

TS: I hope the athletes teach [us to] open our hearts just a little more. Take a pause. You know, slow down just a little bit. See one another a little bit more. When you go home at night, your brothers, your sisters, your husband, your wife, your neighbor, your college roommate -- slow down just a little. Take another look.

Maybe start to see each other a little bit more clearly. And when we do that, I think maybe find the fact that we can be hopeful again as a country. Hopeful again about the fact that we all do have something beautiful within us. If you see that in someone else, you'll find the ways to make it more powerful and more a part of your life in the future. I hope people see that everybody has a gift.