Olympic athletes from the Deaf community
As far as I know, there are three athletes in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics that are from the Deaf community. Two of them are deaf, while one is a Coda (Child of Deaf Adults). Who are they?
The first is 36-year-old David Smith, who is a middle blocker on the U.S. men’s volleyball team. On the USA Volleyball website, it says his hometown is Saugus, California and that he attended college at UC Irvine. His jersey number is 20, and he is seen in a roster photo wearing hearing aids. He is a three-time Olympian and won the bronze medal in Rio 2016.
A feature on the Denver Post said he was born deaf and that sports was a way for him to develop confidence and integrate into the hearing world.
The U.S. men’s volleyball team has a 2-1 record in pool play and will play against Brazil tonight at 10 pm ET.
The next deaf athlete is 20-year-old Diksha Dagar, who plays on the women’s golf team for India.
Olympics.com reported that it is her first time ever playing in the Summer Games and luckily got a spot after two other golfers pulled out of the competition. She is a left-handed golfer and plays professionally since 2019 on the Ladies European Tour with two tournament wins.
She was born deaf and won a silver medal at the 2017 Deaflympics. The women’s golf competition is slated to begin August 5.
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The third athlete is Nauris Miezis, a Coda player for the Latvian men’s 3x3 basketball team, who won the gold medal on Wednesday in a thrilling match over ROC. His jersey is #1.
Deaflympics’ Facebook page posted a short video clip that showed Miezis signing during the medal ceremony expressing gratitude for supporters and saying “Strong Latvia.”
[Video clip CREDIT: FB/Deaflympics]
So, that’s the three athletes from the deaf community in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics as far as we know.
https://usavolleyball.org/athlete/david-smith/
https://www.teamusa.org/usa-volleyball/athletes/david-smith
https://www.denverpost.com/2021/07/28/david-smith-usa-volleyball-tokyo-olympics/
https://olympics.com/en/news/tokyo-2020-olympics-india-golf-diksha-dagar-debut-qualifies
https://twitter.com/dikshadagar?lang=en
https://www.facebook.com/Deaflympics/posts/10159397066792094