Mira Ginsburg

Most athletes receiving the Capital District Sports Women of the Year award come with a long list of other athletic awards. Many are all-conference, all-state, and even all-American. But Mira Ginsburg will be the first to tell you that she is not like those athletes. “I’m not an amazing athlete,” she said. “It’s just not who I am.” But even without the usual cabinet of medals and trophies, Ginsburg has made a dramatic impact on her school and state as a student-athlete.

Ginsburg said she’s always had an interest in sports. “I tried every single sport ever,” she said. “The only one that ever clicked with me was swimming, and that was for a very short period of time.” When presented with a different opportunity to be involved in sports, Ginsburg couldn’t wait to get involved. That opportunity was Unified Basketball, where she would be paired with a fellow student with intellectual disabilities on the court. Spending the season working with her teammate with Down syndrome became a life-changing experience for Ginsburg.

“I don’t know how to explain it, but I had a kind of epiphany,” she said. “I’ve always wanted to do something that helps people with special needs.”

Ginsburg has a unique understanding of those with special needs. She calls it a “very small disability,” but Ginsburg is deaf in her right ear and has been since birth. “I’ve learned how to adapt well to it,” she said. “But a lot of people with more severe disabilities need more support than me. That’s what got me interested in helping them.”

Part of Ginsburg’s effort to adapt to her disability was being her own best advocate. She said she’s had to learn how to speak up when she needs special accommodations. “If I couldn’t hear, I learned to move myself and tell my teacher that I can’t sit here,” she explained. “It’s really hard when I’m driving because, when you’re driving, your right ear is facing the rest of the car. I have to let my friends know that they need to be louder.”

That experience advocating for herself has helped Ginsburg advocate for others. “From the moment she joined our Unified Sports program, Mira made it her mission to ensure that students with intellectual and developmental disabilities felt supported, included, and celebrated,” said Kimberly Murray, Girls Faculty Athletic Manager at Shaker High School.

“Mira has been a driving force behind fostering authentic inclusion through sport, using her platform to champion equity and amplify the voices of students with intellectual and developmental disabilities,” said Sean Colfer, Shaker athletic director.

Not satisfied to limit the Unified program to just sports, Ginsburg said she started seeking ways to bring a similar program to other parts of her school. “I just had a love for Unified sports and I wanted it to be bigger at our school,” she said. “So I did proposals, connected with people who do this at Special Olympics New York, and worked with our athletics and academics and literally everybody at our school to make it happen.”

The result of these efforts was the Include the Blue club, a club devoted to promoting awareness and inclusion throughout the school. Just as there may be a Unified basketball or bowling team, Ginsburg’s club helped start Unified programs in other disciplines like art, robotics, and 3D printing. “In starting Include the Blue, she has cultivated a culture of empathy, cooperation, and respect—principles she consistently embodies in all that she does,” Colfer said.

After working all through her high school career to establish these inclusive programs, Ginsburg has her sights set on even bigger goals. She’ll first be participating in a gap year internship in Israel where she’ll work with the Special Olympics and Special in Uniform to help with their programs. After that, she plans to attend the University of Connecticut and eventually law school to become a disability advocate. “I really like to see a cause and effect relationship,” she said. “And I like that if something needs to be changed, or somebody needs an extra push, that I could be that person.”

Ginsburg says she’s thankful to be honored among this group of local athletes. “It’s so meaningful to see that someone from unified sports is being recognized in this way,” she said. “It really shows how it has become this program that is looked very highly upon. Yes, it’s a program about inclusion, but it’s also about sports.”

“What sets Mira apart, beyond her leadership and service, is her character,” said Murray. “She approaches every task with empathy, drive, and an unshakable sense of responsibility to others. Her presence on any team brings not only talent and organization, but a profound sense of belonging for all participants. She doesn’t just advocate for inclusion—she lives it, every day.”