A Belfast man back from Melbourne told me the Games were well-organised and professionally-controlled, but is it appropriate to describe the results as world records when they are so inferior to medal-winning times in the hearing world?
It's also quite obvious that, in order to try and improve standards and win medals, the organisers have changed the whole meaning of the word DEAF and the medical cut-off line between deaf and hearing has been reduced to 50 decibels - very different from the strict tests of 70/80 loss ten years ago. People with that low level of hearing loss enjoy almost normal hearing with their digital aids and sign language is not in their vocabulary.
Hearing aids are not permitted when competing to try and put all competitors on an equal footing, but nearly all the winners interviewed by See Hear spoke as hearing folk and it seems ridiculous to persist with the title Deaflympics when the great majority of the sports men and women competing are not part of the deaf community as we know it.
If this policy of lowering the level of hearing loss in order to attract a better class of competitor persists, then the time will surely come when sign language users will be in a minority and, with English as their first language, the new breed of deaf athletes will be perfectly at home in events like the Paralympics.
I spoke to the head of UK deaf sports and he said that, while he agreed with many of my points, he felt that the deaf community still felt the need for this four-yearly get-together - not just to compete in sport, but perhaps even more importantly, to meet and socialise with deaf people from many other parts of the world.
Seems to me that there is more emphasis on socialization at Deaflympics than purely for the athletic event. Just my perception. Since all of the deaf and hard of hearing athletes are able-bodied compared to those in the Paralympic or even the Special Olympics. There is a difference between these two sports organization on athletic qualification requirements. And yet many of these deaf and hard of hearing athletes are wannabes who dare hope and dream of competing in the Olympics some day if they practice hard everyday for it.
The Deaflympics shows good intention by showing and helping these skilled deaf or hard of hearing athletes to the world much like the Paralympics. Historically, the Olympics had their share of people with certain disabilities.
So far, 15 deaf or hard of hearing athletes had the rare privilege to compete in "hearing" Olympic Games between 1948 and 2004. The most recent one was a deaf sportsman Frank Bartolillo who won the selection for the 2004 Australian Olympic Fencing Team.
The next recent one was Terence Parkin, an outstanding hard of hearing swimmer from South Africa, in 2000. Before that a deaf athlete made the 1998 Winter Olympics to compete as a speedskater. It was Chantal Sevigny who made the Canadian Olympic Team that competed in the 1998 Winter Olympics. She became the first deaf athlete to take part in the Winter Olympics while the Summer Olympics has a list of deaf or hard of hearing athletes who took part. But this was a first for the Winter Olympics. Even for Jeff Float who became the first gold medal winner as a deaf swimmer in the 1984 Olympics. Jeff Float was never a Deaf athlete but a deaf athlete and was oral most of his life. And not only deaf or hard of hearing athletes competed in the Olympics, so did blind athletes. These athletes aspire to be greater than simply a deaf athlete. These athletes aspire to be nothing but Olympic athletes.
Now, what the CISS/Deaflympics don't tell you about those 14 deaf or hard of hearing athletes even though they acknowledge them quite pridefully, is that many of these athletes are not Deaf or culturally deaf, or even know sign language. Many of these athletes are simply deaf or hard of hearing athletes who may read lips, communicate verbally among their hearing peers and friends, or even use sign language. Some use their hearing aids as a source of communication input and use their voice to communicate instead. And most of these athletes do look up to their famous hearing athletes as a source of their athletic inspiration rather than deaf or hard of hearing athletes. But that's changing, too.
Regardless, the Deaflympics is an inspiring athletic sports organization sponsored by the Olympics committee enabling deaf and hard of hearing athletes to aim at their very best. The best of the best go to the Olympics. Who will be the next one?
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