Friday's cancellation of the 17th Winter Deaflympics left the Canadian women's curling team devastated.
"Our dream was shattered," said third Nyla Kurylowich of St. Albert. "No athlete should experience that, not when we practiced and gave our 100 per cent commitment to curling. To have it cancel on us seven days before it started crushed us mentally and our spirits."
The International Silent Games was scheduled to open Feb. 18 in Vysoke Tatry, Slovakia. It's the first time they were cancelled since the event was founded in 1949.
"It's hard to believe the cancellation happened. In my mind we all should be training in Slovakia and sightseeing new places and doing interesting things and now it's all gone. It vanished in one second after the announcement of the bad news," Kurylowich said. "We're all really down but we're trying to keep our chins up. We all have wonderful friends and families that support us. They all keep telling us that we are the Canadian champions.
"If anything, we are becoming a stronger team as the experience made us bond stronger."
The 2010 Canadian deaf curling championship-winning rink of skip Judy Robertson of Edmonton, Kurylowich, second Lynda Taylor of Spruce Grove, lead Arista Haas of Edmonton and alternate Debbie Sutton of Airdrie were flying to Montreal, en route to Bratislavia for a week of preparation prior to the Deaflympics, when the news broke.
"We're still in shock," said St. Albert's Diana Backer, coach of the Wednesday night A-side foursome at the Jasper Place Curling Club. "When we first heard about the cancellation we had no idea why. The was no reason given at that time."
Disbelief
Kurylowich, 35, described the emotional rollercoaster the team went through.
"We were so pumped to fly out last Friday. In the airplane, we laughed and took a lot of pictures of each other. We were really excited it was actually happening and our dreams were finally coming true by actually flying out," she said. "When the stewardess came to coach Diana with a message from the pilot, informing us that our Air France flight [that night from Montreal] was cancelled, we thought it was bad weather or plane problem. We never thought about the bad news of the cancellation of the Deaflympics.
"When we landed in Toronto, Arista had received many messages on her Blackberry. She told us the bad news that the Deaflympics was cancelled. No one on the team believed it. We thought it was a joke, but she showed me [the messages from] important names from the Canada Deaf Sports Association [CDSA]. That's when it hit us. We all got so confused and demanded some more answers but couldn't get more answers at that time."
Backer was told to talk to a customer service agent once they arrived in Toronto for an explanation.
"Unfortunately she didn't know anything about it. She just said the flights were cancelled," Backer said. "We just couldn't believe it. At that point we weren't sure if we should go home right away or if were supposed to carry on to Montreal so we carried on to Montreal.
"We were flying on West Jet and everybody was crying and giving hugs and people on the plane weren't sure what was happening. Our stewardess Sharon was crying too because of course, we were very sad.
"Once we got to Montreal, we still couldn't believe what was happening. We got off the plane and a gentleman met us there from West Jet. He said, 'Let me get everything taken care of.' They were awesome. They got us to a hotel. They changed our flights. They got us on the latest flight possible within their regulations so that we could at least stay in Montreal overnight and kind of have a morning and part of the afternoon to tour around old Montreal a little bit to get a break.
"Three ladies were going back on West Jet and three were going back on Air Canada, and that was the original arrangements for us returning [home after the Deaflympics]. West Jet was super, super good. He said, 'This isn't your fault.' They understood and didn't charge us anything extra for returning home the next day. Air Canada however said it's not their fault, it's Air France's fault. We said not really but they still charged us, so that was a little disconcerting and disheartening that they weren't willing to help us out."
Kim Rizzi, the CDSA executive director, was in Vienna, Austria, where more than half of the Team Canada delegation had been training, when the plug was pulled on the Deaflympics.
"We are so terribly devastated by the news from the International Committee Sports of the Deaf [ICSD] and the 2011 Slovakian Deaflympics Host Committee and we are all in disbelief. We all want answers, and a clear and precise plan on how Canadians will be reimbursed for the colossal amount of resources spent to prepare to get here," Rizzi said in a press release. "We have been preparing for this event for many years … We are angry and so sad for our national team members."
Rizzi and her staff worked through the night Friday to have all flights changed to get the mission staff and the men's hockey team home to Canada on Sunday. All other arrangements had to be cancelled and reco-ordinated.
"I do not believe anyone fully understands the impact this decision will have on deaf sports in the world. It's disastrous," Rizzi said.
Failure to deliver
So what went wrong in Slovakia? A lack of payments to complete key venues forced the host committee to cancel the Deaflympics. The primary responsibility of the host committee was to secure funds and provide resources, but that didn't happen, according to ICSD chief executive Tiffany Granfors.
"After arriving in Vysoke Tatry to begin our monitoring of final preparations for the Winter Deaflympics, we became increasingly concerned about the lack of readiness and the absence of key organizers," Granfors said in a press release. "Repeated assurances had been given regarding the organizing committee's financial status and its overall readiness. But those assurances were simply not matched by the facts on the ground."
Last year the Deaflympics were on thin ice and the event was even cancelled by the ICSD, but the decision was later reversed, on the assurances by the host committee everything would go according to plan.
Jaromir Ruda, chairman of the host committee, has accepted responsibility for his failure to secure the necessary and much-promised funding. As a result, the ICSD has filed a criminal complaint against Ruda, demanding reimbursement of the funds that were transferred to the host committee from national deaf sports federations to cover hotel accommodations and other Deaflympics–related expenses.
"It's quite sad. These poor athletes are out the money that they put out as a bond unless they can get that back. And for some of the athletes that are in their 30s and 40s, will they go again? Who knows?" said Backer, who curls in the Thursday night mixed league at the St. Albert Curling Club. "I know it's not as big a scale as Vancouver was for the regular Olympics but it still affects people. I feel bad for Lynda on our team. She is in her late 50s. This was her last opportunity. She said, 'That's it. I'm done.'"
The next Deaflympics is 2015 in Vancouver.
