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2011 US Deaflympics - Article | ICSD cancels Winter Deaflympics
Reason??
Watch tunes online. http://www.sportsmx.com/
ICSD cancels Winter Deaflympics
- Thread starter Chevy57
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Reason??
Watch tunes online. http://www.sportsmx.com/
Royale
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It was supposedly canceled last year but it was brought back to alive after the meeting between the ICSD which expressed their concerns about the facilities and fundings and host committee.
I will get more information as soon as I get from a few good friends who are on CDSA board.
I just read the official statement. Wow, talk about being vague. Sounds like a scandal occurred, but they are keeping hush hush on it. We'll know the truth sometimes soon or later. Regardless, this is a very embarrassing situation. I know I would be if it was my country.
Royale
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Yeah.
One of my good friends told me that our women's curling team from Edmonton was aboard plane in air when the announcement came in. They are due to arrive in Montreal by now. They will be sent home tonight or tomorrow. The men's curling team from Ottawa here was aboard the bus on way to Montreal airport and one of the players on team is one of my good friends. He got a text message about the cancellation from another good friend of mine and they were speechless and in shock.
The CDSA whose office is in Montreal, have sent a few representatives to meet and assist those affected athletes and coaches.
Of course I passed the news to ODSA that I am one of their board members.
What the heck!
what a mess!
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Looks like not only was the stadium it was to be held in next week unfinished, but the head of the Slovak organizing committee is in hot water. But then, given that he missed the 2008 congress while serving time for embezzlement -- from this same org -- not exactly unexpected that there might be some trouble 3 years later.
Slovakia: Deaflympics 2011 Controversy · Global Voices
Slovakia: Deaflympics 2011 Controversy · Global Voices
How embarrassing can it get?
Royale
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posts from hell
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heard that there was a protest - can anyone confirm?
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VLOG: DAWN JANI BIRLEY REPORTING FROM SLOVAKIA
News Broadcasting in Sign Language by H3 » Archive » H3 VIDEO: Dawn Jani Birley Reporting from Slovakia
News Broadcasting in Sign Language by H3 » Archive » H3 VIDEO: Dawn Jani Birley Reporting from Slovakia
Royale
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None that I know of. I got some friends who went there so I could check in with them.
posts from hell
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such a sad situation. i was chatting with a lady today who was supposed to compete about it. she is on the fence about flying there and having a vacation, or just staying... she feels like "life has been thrown off track" but actually life is fine, but has to go on.
Her flight leaves Monday, but not sure if shes going.. wow
Miss-Delectable
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Winter deaf games cancellation met with anger
Winter deaf games cancellation met with anger
Friday's cancellation of the 17th Winter Deaflympics in Slovakia left Kimberley Rizzi with both a sick stomach and the task of getting her team home from Europe.
The executive director for the Canadian Deaf Sports Association was in Vienna, Austria, checking her emails and making last-minute preparations for the opening of the 10-day event when it all went wrong.
Slovak organizers, apparently unable to obtain funding to see the event through, put out a quick statement Friday night, saying the 600-athlete celebration was finished before it started.
This was the first cancellation for the deaf games, which were founded in 1949 and take place every four years. The summer version goes back to Paris in 1924 and is the second oldest international sporting event behind the Olympic Games.
"My first reaction was disbelief," a tired Rizzi told CBC Sports by phone from Vienna. "I couldn't believe, with everything we had done — years of planning, fundraising … I was just sick to my stomach, terribly upset.
"I was devastated for the athletes."
About half of the nearly 40 competitors representing Canada, plus many of the coaches, medical staff, interpreters, communications people and family were already in Vienna at a pre-games training camp, mostly for the hockey team.
Others were literally on their way, Rizzi said.
The women's curling team was already in the air from Edmonton. The men's curlers were on a bus from Gatineau, Que., to the airport in Toronto.
And they weren't the only ones. According to the Erie Times-News, the U.S. men's hockey team was ready to step on a plane in New York when the news came.
Other countries' delegations were already in Europe.
Trouble brewing for months
Jaromir Ruda, chief operating officer of the organizing committee in Slovakia, seemed to blame himself in a roughly translated news release put up on the Deaflympics 2011 site, pointing to an inability to acquire the last-minute funding, through sponsorship or a loan, as the reason for the cancellation.
The committee took the drastic measure of cancellation now, he said, so more teams did not make the trip to Slovakia.
The first sign of trouble came last May when the International Committee of Sports for the Deaf (ICDS) announced it had cancelled the event because Slovak organizers were not prepared.
Rizzi said her group received notice in October it might yet be saved — something she believed would happen because "you can't cancel the Deaf Olympics" — and that everyone should stand by.
In early December, the 17th Games were back on, because the ICDS believed preparations were now on track.
This left Canada's team scrambling around to book last-minute flights and hotels, arrange final funding, sort out training camps, uniforms for the opening ceremonies and many other details of such an undertaking.
The team was, Rizzi said, finally ready to go.
And then, the cancellation came. It hit the athletes hard.
“We all worked so hard to prepare for the tournament and we only had the gold medal on our my mind,” men’s hockey captain Steve Devine said from Vienna in an email exchange with the CBC.
“To have this opportunity taken away before we could even play a game was devastating.”
Devine, a Scarborough small business owner, does not believe any kind of answers to what happened will “change the impact that this decision is going to have on our program, and the entire deaf sports community.”
Rizzi, finishing plans to get the team home, was still trying Saturday night to get her head around the cancellation.
"I have a lot of mixed feelings," said Rizzi, who did not sleep Friday into Saturday while she and her staff made arrangements for the return to Canada.
"My first feeling is how sad I am. I can't believe this day has come where the Games were five days out from [Saturday]. It's just disbelief."
Each of the Canadian athletes was required to raise $1,800 — about 25 per cent of the costs — to go to Slovakia. The rest came from local, provincial and national fundraising and government funding.
Rizzi said her group hasn't even begun to deal with the repercussions from that, but in a Saturday afternoon news release from the Canadian Deaf Sports Association in Montreal, the group said it wants "a clear and precise plan on how Canadians will be reimbursed for the colossal amount of resources spent to prepare and to get here."
A request for interview has been relayed by the CBC to Craig Crowley, the British-based head of the ICSD.
The deaf summer games are set for 2013 in Greece, with Vancouver hosting the 2015 winter version.
Winter deaf games cancellation met with anger
Friday's cancellation of the 17th Winter Deaflympics in Slovakia left Kimberley Rizzi with both a sick stomach and the task of getting her team home from Europe.
The executive director for the Canadian Deaf Sports Association was in Vienna, Austria, checking her emails and making last-minute preparations for the opening of the 10-day event when it all went wrong.
Slovak organizers, apparently unable to obtain funding to see the event through, put out a quick statement Friday night, saying the 600-athlete celebration was finished before it started.
This was the first cancellation for the deaf games, which were founded in 1949 and take place every four years. The summer version goes back to Paris in 1924 and is the second oldest international sporting event behind the Olympic Games.
"My first reaction was disbelief," a tired Rizzi told CBC Sports by phone from Vienna. "I couldn't believe, with everything we had done — years of planning, fundraising … I was just sick to my stomach, terribly upset.
"I was devastated for the athletes."
About half of the nearly 40 competitors representing Canada, plus many of the coaches, medical staff, interpreters, communications people and family were already in Vienna at a pre-games training camp, mostly for the hockey team.
Others were literally on their way, Rizzi said.
The women's curling team was already in the air from Edmonton. The men's curlers were on a bus from Gatineau, Que., to the airport in Toronto.
And they weren't the only ones. According to the Erie Times-News, the U.S. men's hockey team was ready to step on a plane in New York when the news came.
Other countries' delegations were already in Europe.
Trouble brewing for months
Jaromir Ruda, chief operating officer of the organizing committee in Slovakia, seemed to blame himself in a roughly translated news release put up on the Deaflympics 2011 site, pointing to an inability to acquire the last-minute funding, through sponsorship or a loan, as the reason for the cancellation.
The committee took the drastic measure of cancellation now, he said, so more teams did not make the trip to Slovakia.
The first sign of trouble came last May when the International Committee of Sports for the Deaf (ICDS) announced it had cancelled the event because Slovak organizers were not prepared.
Rizzi said her group received notice in October it might yet be saved — something she believed would happen because "you can't cancel the Deaf Olympics" — and that everyone should stand by.
In early December, the 17th Games were back on, because the ICDS believed preparations were now on track.
This left Canada's team scrambling around to book last-minute flights and hotels, arrange final funding, sort out training camps, uniforms for the opening ceremonies and many other details of such an undertaking.
The team was, Rizzi said, finally ready to go.
And then, the cancellation came. It hit the athletes hard.
“We all worked so hard to prepare for the tournament and we only had the gold medal on our my mind,” men’s hockey captain Steve Devine said from Vienna in an email exchange with the CBC.
“To have this opportunity taken away before we could even play a game was devastating.”
Devine, a Scarborough small business owner, does not believe any kind of answers to what happened will “change the impact that this decision is going to have on our program, and the entire deaf sports community.”
Rizzi, finishing plans to get the team home, was still trying Saturday night to get her head around the cancellation.
"I have a lot of mixed feelings," said Rizzi, who did not sleep Friday into Saturday while she and her staff made arrangements for the return to Canada.
"My first feeling is how sad I am. I can't believe this day has come where the Games were five days out from [Saturday]. It's just disbelief."
Each of the Canadian athletes was required to raise $1,800 — about 25 per cent of the costs — to go to Slovakia. The rest came from local, provincial and national fundraising and government funding.
Rizzi said her group hasn't even begun to deal with the repercussions from that, but in a Saturday afternoon news release from the Canadian Deaf Sports Association in Montreal, the group said it wants "a clear and precise plan on how Canadians will be reimbursed for the colossal amount of resources spent to prepare and to get here."
A request for interview has been relayed by the CBC to Craig Crowley, the British-based head of the ICSD.
The deaf summer games are set for 2013 in Greece, with Vancouver hosting the 2015 winter version.
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(Transcript)
We are here at Hotel Kempinski, the heart of the Slovakia Winter Deaflympics 2011, which you can see behind me.
As of this moment, the International Committee of Sports for the Deaf (ICSD) has gathered 4 hours ago for a critical meeting, which is still ongoing, and appears it will continue throughout the night.
On February 11, 2011, ICSD shocked the world when they announced the cancellation of the 17th Winter Deaflympics 2011.
The Slovakia Deaflympics Committee’s website, Deaflympics 2011, Vysoké Tatry, Slovakia has posted a statement saying, the head of the Organization Committee, Jaromir Ruda, has accepted full responsibility for the cancellation of the 17th Winter Deaflympics 2011.
The source of the cancellation stems from two main issues: the Organization Committee has been beset with financial problems since its inception, being unable to secure finances for the event. Secondly, construction of two new sports venues as of now still have yet to be completed.
With participants from all over the world spending money on flights and other costs, the organizers, realizing the impossibility to provide venues, made the decision to announce the cancellation of the games to prevent more people from arriving.
Unfortunately, teams from several countries already are here. The Canadian Deaf Hockey Team already has been in Vienna, Austria for a week of practice. Today, they have flown back home.
The Russian and Ukranian teams are still in Slovakia, and just recently, their official representatives have also decided to send their players back home.
On my arrival today, i quickly noticed the mood is dispirited and broken. Even the hotel staff, who are already aware of the situation, are upset at the cancellation, they felt especially sorry for the athletes.
ICSD’s Office Administrator, Sue Burns, has notified us of a press conference on the morning of February 13, at 11:00. Many hearing media will be present, and H3 Network Media will also attend to report the proceedings.
My name is Dawn Jani Birley for H3 Network Media.
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