Ivana B. Cvetkovic

Gold U.S. women's soccer team struggles with funding

June 28, 2013

 

www.allcoices.com

 

The US Deaf Women’s National Soccer Team (USDWNT) is training hard on its road to defend the Deaflympics gold medalist title at the upcoming Deaflympic Games that will take place in Sofia, Bulgaria, from July 26 to Aug. 4. Even though the whole team approaches each game as if it is the gold medal game, the first obstacle they have to overcome is raising enough money for their trip to the Deaflympics. They still hope that they will make it to Bulgaria and face their fiercest competitor, Russia, in the finals and win.

 

The US golden girls run fast, pass the ball and score goals so successfully that next month in Bulgaria they will try to win their third consecutive gold medal; they won their first in 2005, when women’s soccer was first included in the Deaflympics.

 

Besides sharing a common passion for soccer, these remarkable young women share the disability of deafness, since all of the players are born deaf or have suffered a complete or partial hearing loss. According to the existing international criteria, to be eligible, a player must have an average hearing loss of 55 decibels or more in the best ear. However, all the players must remove all hearing aids before playing.

 

Midfielder Allie Galoob, 25, says that not hearing the roar of the crowd is not a disadvantage for her.“I am able to see the passion in the facial expressions and body movements from supporters. That is enough for me,” Allie says with a smile. But being a bilateral cochlear implant recipient, she agrees that not hearing the national anthem does bring a disadvantage.

 

“When the national anthem plays it is such a patriotic moment, so without any cochlear implant it is incomplete,” she points out, hoping that this year in Sofia the gold medalists will be allowed to wear their hearing aids or cochlear implants at the medal ceremony.

 

Membership in the US team means so much to her, because, as she says, joining the USDWNT changed her life. Even though her role model is retired US soccer player Mia Hamm [Unlink], Allie also looks up to her teammates on the USDWNT “because they do amazing things and it is always inspiring to be such a good friend with incredible people.”

 

“I had never really felt completely connected with a team before this team. And I strongly believe it is because of the instant understanding and bond through our deafness. We share experiences and understandings that most of the other people do not have,” Allie explains.Four years ago, she and her teammates stood on the podium in Taipei, Taiwan, as gold medalists. She says it was the first moment she realized the impact that the Deaflympics can have on a person's life and a moment that “defined my character as a soccer player and a person.

 

”Even though the exceptional achievements of the US Deaf women’s soccer team contributed to the United States’ status as a world soccer power, especially in women’s soccer, the USDWNT is self-funded. According to Allie, players are asked to raise $6,000 each to fund their trip to the Deaflympics in Bulgaria.

 

“We struggle so much with fundraising and it seems unfair that we don't get the backing of our country or the US Olympic Committee. I hope that'll change one day soon,” says the US team midfielder who started playing soccer when she was four. Some of her teammates raise funds through GoFundMe websites, others send letters to members of their community asking for donations, while some work as teachers or dairy farmers in order to earn enough money. In the effort to raise some funds that will send her and her teammates to the games, Allie has shown her creative side. Instead of simply asking for money, she designed T-shirts with her team No. 13, so anyone who donates can get a T-shirt in return.

 

The Deaflympics, also frequently referred as International Silent Games, were the first ever sporting event for athletes with disabilities. The fist Silent Games were held in Paris in 1924, while the first Deaflympic Winter Games were held in Seefeld, Austria, in 1949. The games began as a small sporting event for 148 athletes from nine European counties. After holding 21 games every four years since the first ones (apart from the break for World War II), the Deaflympics became a global movement, and more than 4,000 deaf athletes from 77 countries took part in the last games held in Taipei in 2009.

 

Deaf athletes are distinguished from all others in their special communication needs on the field. Since Deaflympians are not able to be guided by sounds, alternative methods of communication are used, such as waiving flags instead of blowing a whistle or using a light instead of a starting pistol. Additionally, spectators at Deaflympics usually wave with both hands instead of cheering and clapping.

 

With every new individual and nation that joins the games, another step forward is made against prejudice and misconceptions about deaf people around the world.

 

More information about the US deaf soccer team is available at USDeafSoccer.com, while donations through buying T-shirts with Allie’s lucky No. 13 are possible throughagaloob.deco-apparel.com.

 

Photo courtesy of Allie Galoob