New National Lottery funding will help
more talented young deaf athletes fulfill their sporting potential
and support athletes who are training for next year’s
Deaflympics.
UK Deaf Sport will receive more than £125,000
from Sport England to support the UK Team’s preparations for the
competition in Bulgaria.
The investment will also fund work to help
individual sports to integrate young deaf and hearing-impaired
athletes fully in their talent programmes and so help them realise
their full potential.
“The phenomenal performances of GB athletes at
the Paralympic Games showed just what can be achieved with the
right blend of talent, dedication and financial support,” said
Jennie Price, Chief Executive of Sport England. “The
investment we’re announcing today will help to create a level
playing field for talented young deaf athletes on their journey to
elite sport.”
A UK Team of just over 100 athletes and
officials took part in the last Deaflympics in 2009, competing in
eight sports and winning 10 medals. A similar sized team is
expected to travel to Sofia in July and August for next year’s
event.
“We want to build on all areas of disability
sport, following the success of the Paralympics,” said Hugh
Robertson MP, Minister for Sport. “The funding from Sport England
to UK Deaf Sport will help athletes receive the high level of
dedicated training that we know needs to be undertaken to compete
effectively on the world stage.”
Held since 1924, the Deaflympics use adapted
technology to suit deaf people and is highly regarded as the
largest multi-sport event for high-performance Deaf athletes from
around the world.
Pre-Games training and preparation will be led
by a co-ordinator and performance manager who will be recruited by
UK Deaf Sport.
"Sport England's funding will enable us to
move forward with our preparations for the games in Sofia next
summer by recruiting two staff who will work with our volunteers
and medical and interpreting teams,” said Philip Gerrard, Chair of
UK Deaf Sport. The funding will also support our long-term aim of
talent development in Deaf sport which will see us working with
national sports bodies to establish and embed deaf performance
pathways. We are grateful to Sport England for this timely
boost, coming at the end of a fantastic summer of sport in the
UK."
The announcement was welcomed by organisations
that work with deaf and hearing-impaired people, including Action
on Hearing Loss, National Deaf Children’s Society and British Deaf
Association.