Looking through the shop window
I have just come back from visiting the men and women’s football team who are residing at the Japanese National Football Centre which was a 4-hour drive away. As a small team it has been hard to keep in touch with everyone, especially when cycling is 2 hours the opposite direction from the rest of us. Whilst I appreciate Japan is huge, these distances has stretched our resources even further.
Nevertheless, it has given me the opportunity to meet other delegates from a range of other countries and learn more about how their national federations are recognised and supported by their respective governments. I think I mentioned earlier that approximately 80% of the countries here in the Deaflympics are fully funded by their government. If you take the Men’s football team for example, they are the only team without state funding and support and yet they are competing for 5th/6th place. This makes it feel like I am standing outside a shop with a wonderful display of goods that I cannot afford or have.
As an example, the Italians are fully recognized alongside the Paralympics, and their athletes are awarded with cash if they win a medal. In addition, 2 years ago they received further funding that allowed them to train full-time. I used to work in the sport of boccia, I know how much Boccia UK received for their preparations leading up to the Paralympics in Paris and the return on that investment resulted in just 1 gold medal. We have won 6 medals without any investment with many others in the top 6 placing and PB’s. just imagine how many more medals we would be challenging for if we had the same support as the Italians and the other 65 nations fully funded.
We have a lot to do when we return from Tokyo to gain the recognition and support our athletes fully deserve.