CSUSOP Must Recommend USOPC to Recognize Deaflympics
The International Olympic Committee Recognized Deaflympics in 2001 (22 years ago!)
Today is the opening day of the “Never Give Up” film. The true story of how twenty-year-old Brad Minns does the impossible in the Men's Singles Tennis Finals in the 1985 World Games for the Deaf.
Three nights ago, I held my smartphone during the premiere of the open caption film in Orlando, Florida, and then took three pictures below. The reason for taking these pictures is to show them to 14 members of the Commission of the State of U.S. Olympics and Paralympics (CSUSOP).
The scene is the Office of Brad’s University of Toledo Tennis Coach. The latter handed the announcement to Brad (played by Harrison Stone.)
Brad puzzled, “World Games for the Deaf?”
He exclaimed, “What’s that?”
Coach relaxedly replied, “Deaf Olympics.”
Nearly all 7.8111 billion people globally know what the Olympics is!
At that time (1984), the “Deaf Olympics” was commonly used.
In 2001, the IOC granted the International Committee of the Sports for the Deaf (ICSD) to change the name of the World Games for the Deaf to Deaflympics.
Sadly, Congress and the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) have yet to include the Deaflympics in the latter's program.
"To achieve these environments, I resolutely believe it is necessary for Congress and the USOPC to establish funding mechanisms and implement structural reforms—including revising the Ted Stevens Olympic and Amateur Sports Act to insert the Deaflympics alongside the Olympics and the Paralympics so that Deaf and Hard of Hearing Americans are better protected from abuse, mistreatment, and discrimination and are afforded equal access to the provisions of the Act as covered under the Americans with Disabilities Act." (Former ICSD President Donalda Ammons’ Public Comment to CSUSOP)
Should the Commission of the State of U.S. Olympics and Paralympics consider the inclusion of the Deaflympics in our National Olympic Committee's program?
“Your film is 10 times better than I expected,” Howie Gorrell told Brad Minns on Aug. 27.