A newspaper article regarding Deafympics
Salt Lake Tribune - United States (Monday, October 30, 2006)
Utah playing host: USOC can't help because of new rules resulting
from the Salt Lake Olympic scandal
By Sheena McFarland
The Salt Lake Tribune
Photo:
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Photo with story:
Jeff Pollock, an American Sign Language instructor at the University
of Utah and a snowboarder on the U.S. Deaflympic team, earned a
silver and a bronze medal in the last two Deaflympics, and hopes to
take the gold in February when the Games come to Utah.
(Steve Griffin/The Salt Lake Tribune)
Jeff Pollock started out alpine skiing with his high school team. But in 1985, he gave up skis for a snowboard, and he hasn't looked back since. Now, Pollock, an American Sign Language instructor at the University of Utah, has medals to show for his passion. He earned a silver and a bronze in the past two Deaflympics Winter Games, and he's going for gold this February when the games for the deaf and extremely hearing impaired come to Utah. That gold, however, seems more elusive than ever as the Deaflympics face a financial crisis. Organizers say $2.5 million would cover the cost of hosting the five-event, 10-day games expected to draw more than 260 athletes and 3,000 spectators, but they have only $1.2 million. That budget doesn't cover the costs of athletes such as Pollock. Because he lives in Utah, Pollock doesn't have to worry about travel and lodging expenses, but his fellow snowboarders do. That's why Deaf-lympic coaches have asked each competitor to raise $4,000 to help defray athletes' expenses. Pollock, who was named 2005's Male Deaf Sportsman of the Year by the USA Deaf Sports Federation, has scraped together $1,000, and hasn't bought a season ski pass for training in order to save money for his teammates, who will compete Feb. 1-10.
He said some U.S. athletes already have pulled out of thegames because $4,000 would be enough to train for and compete in at least two year's worth of non-Deaflympic competitions. "The Deaflympics won't happen without athletes," he said. "What good is it without them?" Life was a lot easier, he said, when the United States Olympic Committee provided funding for the Deaflympics. Its financial support stopped after legislation restructured the USOC in 1998 after the Salt Lake Olympic scandal broke. The legislation, sponsored by Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, forced the USOC to focus on the Olympics and the Paralympics for athletes with physical disabilities at the expense of organizations ranging from the Dwarf Athletic Association to the Special Olympics. Before the change, the USOC had at least partially funded the Deaflympics since its inception nearly 80 years ago. Many say the USOC doesn't consider deaf athletes disabled enough to participate in anything but the regular Olympics. That attitude infuriates Deaflympic organizers and athletes. "Part of the experience of the Olympics is the camaraderie felt with other athletes," said Shirley Platt, a member of the Deaflympics organizing committee. "But our athletes wouldn't have an interpreter to really get that feeling from other athletes."
Pollock agrees. He knows deaf athletes have every physical capability of other athletes except for hearing, so the Paralympics aren't a good fit. The only accommodations used in the games are lights instead of whistles. But he says deaf athletes face "oppression" in training and too often are overlooked for hearing athletes. "We can get together as a community, set aside our international differences, and share the experience of being deaf," he said. That's one of the aspects Carina Crosby, a 16-year-old Park City High School student and alpine skier, looks forward to. She has raised about $1,000 and hopes to raise the full $4,000 to help her fellow skiers get to Utah. She plays high school sports and is trying to get her season ski pass sponsored this year to train. She wants to see the games go well in her hometown. "The Deaflympics have a long tradition. . . . I think that the deaf people have a right to honor our achievements in the Deaflympics," she said. Darryl Seibel, USOC spokesman, said budget limitations keep his organization from funding the Deaflympics. "Our primary focus is the Olympics, the Paralympics and Pan-American games, and we have to align our resources in that way," he said. "We are like any other business. Our resources are finite. The cost of day-to-day business is going up and we're moving into an unprecedented competitive land- scape." Seibel says other countries outspend the U.S. on their Olympic teams; the U.S. isn't even in the top five best-funded teams. Stevens, the Alaskan senator, has written letters to the USOC stating he never intended to eliminate the Deaflympics from the
USOC's funding structure. The USOC responded by sending its corporate sponsors marketing proposals encouraging them to support the Deaflympics. The USOC also has allowed the Deaflympics to use the Olympic name and logo, which Seibel said is invaluable. Deaflympics supporters want to perpetuate the prestige of the Olympic name, but they are struggling to do so without financial support behind the logo. Organizers have found some large sponsors, such as IHC, the Eccles Foundation and Sorenson Communications, which manufactures a videophone for the deaf.
They also are selling commissioned artwork to raise funds. But they've still had to halve their operating budget to $1.2 million. "We have cut our budget to its bare bones," Platt said. "We don't want the world to come to Utah and give our state's reputation a black eye." She wishes the USOC would at least allow the Deaflympics to light the Olympic Caldron during the games. She also wants more support from the Utah Sports Commission and other state and local government officials. The state has lent support in the form of a $100,000 grant from the Utah Department of Tourism, but that money can only be used to promote the event out of state to attract tourists, said Michael Deaver of the Office of Tourism.
The Utah Sports Commission helped secure that grant, but otherwise chose not to get involved with the Deaflympics, Chief Executive Jeff Robbins said.
"We don't see a large economic impact and image-building opportunity with the Deaflympics." He said the commission cautioned Deaf- lympics organizers about the difficulty of hosting the games. "A multisport and multivenue event with the international layering of protocol and decorum is a hard thing to pull off," he
said. And, because the Deaflympics is affiliated with the USOC, it should fall to that group and not the commission to fund, Robbins added.
Therein lies the dilemma for Deaflympic organizers. Even though the USOC offers no financial support, it restricts
which sponsors Deaf- lympic organizers can use, Platt said. Pepsi cannot be approached, for example, because Coca-Cola is an Olympic sponsor. Plus, many Olympic sponsors say no to the Deaflympic organizers because they've already paid for Olympics and Paralympics sponsorships, she said. Platt and other organizers have encountered issues ranging from finding curling stones they can afford to locating enough interpreters. They are trying to be frugal while still putting on an event that will reflect well on the state. "We are still looking at ways to bring down our costs, but we still need another $500,000 to make this go well," organizer Dennis Platt said. "We could breathe a lot easier if we knew we had the support of the state and the USOC."
I'll be sure to bring my teams to your booth and let you talk their eyes out.