Deaflympic goals must look ahead to Ottawa roller David Morton

Article content material

Ottawa roller David Morton has spent his life dreaming of the day he would signify Canada on a global stage.

However following the Canadian Deaf Sports activities Affiliation’s determination to drag out of the Winter Deaflympics, his dream of carrying the maple leaf must wait.

Article content material

Final 12 months, Morton’s blended doubles group certified to signify Canada on the video games set to happen in Turkey in March.

Article content material

Nonetheless, Morton, who can be an affiliate professor of American Signal Language at Carleton College, was not too long ago disillusioned to study that the Canadian Deaf Sports activities Affiliation wouldn’t be sending athletes to the video games resulting from Turkey’s proximity to the “present geopolitical uncertainty within the Center East.”

That follows related selections from different nations’ deaf sports activities teams, together with the USA, Finland and the Czech Republic. Every cited a scarcity of logistical details about the video games from organizers as their cause for his or her withdrawal.

Regardless of his disappointment, Morton mentioned he would proceed to work as exhausting as he might to succeed in his purpose.

“Being a high athlete, it’s important to take it severely and do a number of duties to succeed in the highest purpose, after which if you discover out that you just’re not going, your thoughts is fragmented straight away,” Morton mentioned.

Curling has been a part of Morton’s life for so long as he can keep in mind.

He used to look at his mother curl on the Petawawa navy base, the place his household lived when he was three years previous. He’d additionally watch the Brier and Scotties males’s and ladies’s nationwide curling championships on TV yearly, fascinated by the sport’s technique and intricacies.

Article content material

Curling, Morton mentioned, is like chess. After changing into conversant in the ins and outs, he discovered to foretell his favorite gamers’ methods just a few strikes forward.

“I keep in mind considering, ‘I need to be one in every of them sometime,’ ” he mentioned utilizing signal language in an interview by way of an interpreter. “The query can be, as a deaf participant, ‘How might I compete with listening to gamers contemplating there’d be obstacles for communication?’ ”

Whereas Morton grew up round curling, he didn’t begin taking part in till he was a scholar at Sir James Whitney Faculty for the Deaf in Belleville, on the age of 16.

He discovered to twist on the Quinte Curling Membership alongside 4 different deaf college students. However, as he climbed the ranks within the curling world, Morton mentioned he started to appreciate how a lot listening to curlers seen speaking with deaf curlers as too massive a barrier within the sport.

“I can present individuals my degree of ability, they usually nonetheless don’t essentially need to choose me,” Morton mentioned. “They typically say, ‘We’ll give it some thought,’ as a result of communication is a giant barrier within the minds of listening to individuals.”

However for deaf and listening to curlers alike, Morton says curling is an inherently gesture-based recreation.

Article content material

Whereas many individuals affiliate curling with yelling and its signature “hurry exhausting” catchphrase, it additionally depends on non-verbal alerts between teammates to speak the velocity or line of a shot.

“Loads of gestures are precise signal language, however individuals don’t know,” Morton mentioned. “Listening to individuals do use gestures innately within the sport anyway. Why not apply that in communication strategies with deaf individuals? Why are you pushing them out?

“Whereas listening to individuals talk by means of yelling, we present that by means of expressions,” he mentioned.

“We’re signing more durable and greater, we’re utilizing larger actions. We’re visible individuals. There’s a whole lot of co-operation and teamwork. We simply use physique language to speak fairly than hollering out.”

Morton says he’s no stranger to overcoming the communication barrier. When he began curling with blended doubles accomplice Jordan Morrison, who is tough of listening to and grew up curling with listening to gamers, he mentioned communication was a problem.

When Morrison related with Morton in January 2023, it was her first time immersing herself in deaf curling. Morton mentioned they communicated by means of an interpreter, and “it was awkward at first.”

Article content material

“I don’t signal in any respect, so communication isn’t unattainable, however it’s very difficult,” Morrison mentioned. “Total, it’s been a terrific expertise, however it’s far more tough than I assumed it might be.

“Not like many different groups, our widespread denominator is the game — it’s not language,” she mentioned.

The pair first competed collectively on the Scotch Doubles event in Hamilton in February, and, regardless of solely having simply met, they shortly discovered success.

“We hadn’t practised, we hadn’t labored on technique, we hadn’t mentioned the sport,” Morton mentioned. “We have been taking part in towards fairly expert groups, and we performed very well.”

Within the following months, the gap between Ottawa and Morrison’s hometown of Wingham, Ont., made it tough for the pair to seek out time to practise collectively. However they continued to coach on their very own and to compete collectively once they might, and ultimately certified for the Deaflympics.

Although the Deaflympics are now not within the pair’s fast future, they mentioned they’d proceed their partnership. They’re set to compete within the Ontario Combined Doubles Tour Championships in London in mid-January and can then be wanting forward for different occasions.

For Morton, the dream continues to be to put on the Canadian emblem. He’s now setting his eyes on the World Deaf Curling Championships in 2025, or the subsequent Winter Deaflympics in 2027.

“I need to see deaf individuals fulfil their goals,” he mentioned. “And, for a few of us, that’s to compete on the worldwide degree.”

Article content material