The Summer Deaflympics this past January only yielded 8 gold medals for Team USA. That's correct. Eight. E-I-G-H-T. That's exactly 1/3 the total of gold medals Team USA garnered at the previous Deaflympics in 2001.
So, what is behind this sudden drop? John Knetzger, the Vice President of Member Services for the USA Deaf Sports Federation (USADSF), attributes this to several factors: the Deaflympics being held in January, many athletes' inability to make the trip to Australia, and perhaps the bottom line: "insufficient training." Knetzger's article regarding this was published last May in SIGNews.
The 1993 team to Bulgaria earned 81 medals total, but the 2005 team earned 31, an alarming drop. There's another underlying message to this drop in overall medal count for Team USA: lack of funding and awareness.
USADSF is underfunded by the same organization that spends millions preparing hearing Olympians and paralympians who compete in the Paralympics-the United States Olympic Committee (USOC). At the last summer games, USADSF lost hundreds of thousands of dollars of promised funding from USOC. The main reason USADSF lost funding from USOC was because of increased security at the Athens Olympics in 2004. That didn't stop USOC from financially supporting the U.S. paralympic team from competing later that year at the same venues where the able-bodied athletes had competed months earlier.
Why do Deaf sports continue to be at the lower end of the receiving spectrum? It may be one significant factor: deaf athletes' abilities. Parathletes are similar to us - they are disabled too. So why even have a Deaflympics? Deaf athletes can compete on the Olympic level. There are many Deaf or hard of hearing athletes that compete at the Olympic level. Terence Parkin of South Africa is one of the world's best swimmers and has dominated the last two Deaflympics in swimming categories. Tamika Catchings of the Indiana Fever is hard of hearing, and played at the Olympic level for team USA. These are just two examples of deaf or hard of hearing athletes who compete at the amateur or pro level and could qualify for the Olympics. Yet, they don't get full recognition from the USOC.
Never mind that we produce athletes who perform at their peak level and give blood, sweat, and tears for Ol' Glory. Our athletes also have to surrender something else: time for fundraising. Many athletes need to fundraise $4,000 or more for each Deaflympics. Most of the money goes to team funds that will support the team's trip to the Deaflympics. This sometimes doesn't include personal needs.
What the USADSF Board did instead of sitting on their laurels and waiting for USOC to wake up and fund Team USA for the next Deaflympics was to create a plan: create a Games Preparation Committee. This committee's intention is to build a stronger plan that includes tryouts, training, competitions, apparel, to list a few. Sounds like a good start.
But we won't know the fruits of its labor for a few years. The next Winter Deaflympics are in 2007 in Park City, Utah. After that, we won't see the next Summer Deaflympics until 2009.
But one fact still remains, USADSF and its affiliates are still underfunded. Until we see increased recognition and funding from the USOC, we will continue to see our overall medal count lag behind other countries.
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