Northamptonshire deaflympians fear 'heartbreak' if they cannot fund trip to Tokyo 2025 games

ITV News

15-05-2025

A group of deaf athletes is appealing to the public to help fund their journey to the Tokyo 2025 Deaflympics.
Unlike the Olympics and Paralympics, the Government does not provide funding for athletes to compete in the Deaflympics, which has been running for over 100 years.
The Northampton charity Deafconnect is calling on the public for donations to help athletes get to Tokyo, saying deaf people are being 'overlooked for the opportunity of a lifetime.'
GB Deaf Women's Footballer, Genevieve O'Hara, said the moment her team qualified for Tokyo was joyous, but now they have the difficult task of fundraising £4,000 per person to go.
'I think the team would be gutted, obviously it's our dream to go to the Deaflympics" she told ITV News Anglia.
"I've only been involved with the team for the last year, so for me it's a huge dream to go to the Deaflympics and something that I am hugely proud of.
"If I don't get to go, I think I would be heartbroken.'
Since October, when the women's team beat Poland to qualify for the Deaflympics, Ms O'Hara has managed to raise £2,000, which is half of her target.
She believes Team GB would win more goals if the Government funded elite deaf sport, because the athletes would then be able to spend more time training.
"Because of the funding situation, we've been having to pay for hotels, and training has had to be limited to once a month. We've got players that live all over the UK, so we have to set up training camps, but hotels aren't cheap" she said.
"I think if we had that financial support, we could train more often. It means our fitness would improve, our skills and technical abilities would improve.
"We would really like to bring home a gold medal, but at the moment we just can't train as much as we'd like. It's really difficult."
Three-time deaflympian Claire Stancliffe from Wellingborough says the opportunity is not just about representing your country, it's about being part of something where communication is no longer a barrier.
"Being part of DeaflympicsGB has changed my life. When I was 18 years old, I had no confidence, I had no life skills, I didn't know how to socialise," she said.
"I look at where I am now, the job that I have, those skills I have learned from being in a deaf community and a deaf football team, have made me the person that I am today. I cannot express how important that is."
She added: "It's really frustrating that we're deaf but we don't feel listened to."
Christopher Naylor, who works at the charity Deafconnect, says it makes him angry to see athletes still struggling with fundraising 20 years after he won footballing gold in 2005.
'It is definitely life changing, without a doubt, when you remove all of those barriers and give that level playing field, that massive opportunity, and other people need to experience that, not only within sport but in work, in the wider community, and in social settings.
"In the deaf community, we have suffered for many years, and we're still suffering now; it needs to change.'
The charity's CEO, Jenni Dawkins said: "Deaf people are overlooked in everyday life, and now they are being overlooked for something that is the opportunity of a lifetime.
"Nobody in the Deaflympics has any funding to go, and yet all of the Olympians from the hearing teams get funding to go; it just doesn't make sense.'
For kit, training, interpreters, accommodation and travel, DeaflympicsGB says it will cost half a million to get their athletes to Tokyo.
The government spent nearly 800 times that amount on the Olympics and Paralympics in Paris, to the tune of £344 million.
The Government said it is dedicated to making sport in this country accessible and inclusive for everyone, including deaf people, with £1.2 million in funding via Sport England for grassroots deaf sports.