Deaf News: Guardian article argues ‘British Paralympians deserve funding but so do our Deaflympic squad’

Posted on July 22, 2013 by



In an article in the Guardian, Sport Editor Sean Ingle points out that Britain’s Deaf athletes – who will be competing in Sofia, Bulgaria from this Friday – are poorly funded in comparison to their Paralympic counterparts.

Extract:

Which brings us neatly to another global disabled event that starts in Sofia this week: the 22nd Deaflympics. Like the Paralympics, it is sanctioned by the International Olympic Committee and features athletes from more than 100 countries, many of whom compete at extraordinarily high levels. The deaf 100m world record, for instance, is 10.21sec – a time that is even better when you consider reactions are inevitably slower given races are started by lights, not pistols. The profoundly deaf swimmer Marcus Titus, who will be competing in Bulgaria, was talented enough to reach the final of the American 2012 Olympic trials for the 100m breaststroke. Had he touched the wall 0.79sec earlier he would have made the plane to London.

But there the similarities end. While Paralympians will rightly receive pages of coverage over the coming days, the Deaflympics will be grateful for a paragraph. And while British Paralympians receive funding and support from UK sport, the 60 members of Britain’s Deaflympics squad get nothing. They have had to beg and skimp and save to raise £3,200 each to compete in Sofia.

Read the full article here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2013/jul/21/deaflympics-olympic-games-paralympics


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